>> announcer: this is an abc news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and finally it is here. we're here in times square for election night 2012 at the abc news election headquarters. great to have you with us. all day long we've been watching grandmothers, first-time voters, rich people, poor people, blue collar workers, all the people who believe in america going to the polls, every state of our union today joining together at the ballot boxes, and we will be bringing you the results. we are here to tell you who won,

why throughout this evening and what's next. it's your voice as we've been saying and your vote tonight. >> diane, it has been a long, bitter and expensive race. deadlocked most of the way and revealed an america divided in so many ways. tonight, all of you are going to tip the balance. >> and now we are ready to begin because we have three projections to make because the polls have closed in six states and we are ready to go. here it is. indiana, this state has switched, president obama won it four years ago, governor romney has won it this time. it is not a surprise, though. we were expecting governor romney to take indiana. kentucky, this is a very red state and governor romney has taken kentucky, as well, tonight. and vermont, a very blue state weighing in early and president obama, abc news, based on the exit polls is ready to project a winner in vermont right now. let's tell you aboutther states. we have too little information to make a projection. georgia, a red state, bill

clinton won in 1992, but no other republican or every republican has won since then and south carolina, solid red state, not enough information to project at this point, so -- and virginia, this is a big one, george, and we do not have enough information at this moment. we are watching it every single moment. we'll bring you the news as we have it. >> that is the biggest surprise so far. a must win for mitt romney. the overall map. as you said no big surprises right now. a lot of votes outstanding but the polls are closing. the race could not be closer. both 2012 stavote 2012 starts r. >> are you fired up? are you ready to go? >> i believe in america. i believe in you. >> announcer: the speeches are over. the campaigning done. tonight across america your voice has been heard. your vote's being counted so who will win this crucial election for president? now the abc news political team

takes you everywhere to chicago inside the obama campaign and boston behind the scenes with romney. to the heated battleground states across the country where this election will be decided and our team tracking your vote everywhere in the crossroads of the world with the crowds in times square. and with our partners from univision in miami plus abc's barbara walters, katie couric and our powerhouse team telling you who's winning and why on this historic night, election night 2012, the stakes so high, the race so close, america's next president decided tonight. it's "your voice, your vote." once again from abc news election headquarters in times square, new york, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> you are looking at times square, usa, the pulse of the nation. also the crossroads of the world, 182 million people pass through here every year and

tonight, it is election headquarters for abc news and we are so glad to have you back with us on this very big night, george. >> we have an entire team right out here with us. our reporters an analysts over on that side of the room, jon karl karl, cokie robert, ron brownstein. our poll watchers and polling, gary langer and on this side, of course, a team with so much experience and so many presidential campaigns working inhem and covering them, as well. >> the mt. everest over there of expertise and insight tonight. and also we are in touch with you throughout the evening, katie couric is manning our social media headquarters, great to see you, katie. >> thanks, diane. >> as we all remember that tonight is the night as someone said democracy is not who we are, it is what we do, and our big map is going to be showing everybody at home the states as they come in and as we project them and at this moment just to say it once again, the polls have closed in six states, we

projected three states, no surprises in them so far, two for romney, one for obama, and we have a lot of other states including virginia, not enough information. >> and that is a big one, diane. die want to start out with matthew dowd worked in many presidential campaign rooms, most recently for george w. bush and as i mentioned at the top, this entire race has been defined by deadlock. it's been a tied race most of the way and real division in this country. >> i think what we'll see, the thing we'll want to see from tonight is what does the country look like really and what -- how is the makeup of the electorate? that will tell us a lot. are we still on a transition we've been on for the last 20 year, which is a different country three, four presidential elections ago and even 2004 is a huge -- and the geography of the country will tell us where we are. big, broad things, what does the country look like? >> george will covered elections since 1972 am i right about that? >> correct.

>> so what's the main thing you'll be watching tonight? >> i'm going to watch to see if the country behaves the way it talks. that is, instead that we're a nation serious about the status quo yet if mr. obama were to be re-elected we will have had for the second time in history three consecutive two-term presidents and stability in executive office and furthermore, if he's re-elected and if the democrats hold the senate and republicans hold the house, washington on the morning after is going to look very much like washington the day before. >> of course, nicolle wallace who worked in the pal in/mccain campaign four years ago, george w. bush, the huge issue, overwhelming issue, the economy. that is the issue that mitt romney wanted to make his calling card. >> that's right. they are looking at the same information we're looking at as people are still voting, you know, they're hoping that's what they had in mind when they went to the polls day. they made a sales pitch that was

100% about voters being dissatisfied with the pace of recovery. that was the beginning, middle and end of mitt romney's pitch to the american people and they're on the same pins and needles we are to see if it worked. >> donna brazile, one thing we saw, the exitle pos and a surprise to me in the exit polls if we can pull it up now, we asked about the direction of the country and one thing that it showed, donna brazile, who worked for campaign manager for al gore back in 2000, a dramatic reduction over the last year in people who think the country is going on the wrong track, just 52% today. it was 77% a year ago. >> i think the president knew from the jump that he had to convince the american people that he had the right policies, the right visions to move the country forward. four years ago the country was in a deep, you know, sorrowful mood. they wanted somebody who could get in the white house and stabilize the economy on the barack obama leadership and found that person, that individual, that vision and i think tonight you'll see that

most americans are now looking forward to another four years. >> i want to point out that nicolle and donna were on opposite sides in 2000 watching that nail-biting time in american life but we also have some have you results coming in on the early voting. to jonathan karl who covers congress for us. you have the very latest now. and tell us how big the early voting is and what you know about it right now. >> it was huge. more than one out of every three voters cast their ballots before polling places opened this morning. we had 46 million people we estimate voted early. that is 36% of the electorate, diane and in our latest abc news/"washington post" poll we have an estimate of how those early voters voted and take a look at this. president obama won among the early voters, 52%-45%. sounds like a pretty big deal, seven-point spread but keep in mind four years ago he actually won the early vote by 18%. he would have lost if it was

only those people who voted on election day so the president has a much smaller lead among the early vote going into this election which suggests at least a much closer race. >> and, again, we've been hearing anecdotally all day about people lining up for hours and hours and hours at the polls to make sure they vote and we know the voting is still going on and we are only going to be projecting after polls have closed in the states we promise you that. i want to tell you about our decision desk because our decision desk is a kind of brain trust. they are an incredible group of people. we would show them to you but we can't because we can't call them and say, oh, please tell me something. they are there and they're in a closed room. they are looking at all of the exit polling results, they are weighing them against what they know about every single precinct. they are cross-correcting for any mistakes that might be in those exit polls and want to make sure every projection we bring you is absolutely right.

>> and we will wait till the last minute to do it if we have to, absolutely, diane. i want to go to katie couric covering social media at the big board. >> you know, this is really the first truly digital election as we know. social media is playing a bigger role than ever before and nobody here wants to hear this, but 80% of the people in this country get their political news online. sorry, everybody, but if you have any dows about the importance of social media, all you have to do is take a look at twitter, by the way, now, in 2008, 3 million were on twitter but this year now 70 million americans are, in fact, on twitter. now, who are they? here's who they are. it's 70% of them are under the age of 44. 60% of them are women. 30% of them are african-americans, all demographics that favor president obama. now, you want to know about how many tweets there have been during this election cycle? 358 million tweets altogether if you can believe that. but that doesn't mean they've

all been positive, right. 98 million tweets for president obama. 45% positive, 55% negative. as we know if you are mentioned in a tweet it doesn't necessarily mean it's complimentary. when it comes to governor romney he's been in 85 million tweet, 61% negative. 39% positive and, george, you know, we were interested too in the number of peopleho were saying this country was on the wrong track declining, in fact. so we actually asked people about that. why do you have a change of heart? because we're ending war, not starting them and the economy has been improving, not getting worse. someone else wrote we're no longer on the wrong track. on the right track. many indicators prove as such, stocks up, corporate profits up, home values up, exports up and construction up. we're going to pay attention to what's trending online. this photo is trending. big bird waiting in line to vote just like the rest of us. who could have imagined that big bird binders and horses and bayonets would be the memorable

term of this election. >> that debate where big bird was mentioned seems like a million years ago. >> it seems like a century ago and, katie, i was tweeting out today to people and saying just tell me the first word that comes to mind. it was so moving today because in my word cloud of all the words people sent back, the number one were hope, then there was also pride and the third one was relief. >> and a lot of optimism as we pointed out. >> that's true. >> as we know, this is an election that his about america families and taxes and health care in this country, ending a war and also trying to make sure that we own the future in this country and our own josh elliott is out in the freezing cold. we hope that he has a lot of clothes on tonight, because he is there with some of the people starting to gather to watch us on all the big screens out in times square. >> indeed, diane. well, mom's best advice, layers,

layers, i'm layered and ready for bear and we saw big bird in line. i'm standing in perhaps the only place you'll see a six-fight big bird. the crossroads of the world and tonight, well, with all respect to katie couric, this might be the most social of media. it is social media incarnate where america will gather. already seeing the crowd gather and it is an am pi nighter they will be gathering in. adrian, if you want to pan across the second floor studio you'll see the nasdaq sign and the reuters sign, they will be bringing you the information, the polling data and the pictures of this evening as people gather here in times square come to see history four years ago it was a coronation they came to see, tonight it will be a very different sort of history. we have heard our analysts talk about a bitter and divided america. it will be interesting to see if that dynamic plays out here as it does, we will have it for you, again, as well, the

temperature drops but the emotions rise, election night is under way down below, diane. >> all right, josh, we'll be coming back to you. as we said, 182 million people passing through times square every year. and we want to point out that we are being seen tonight all over the world. and we're being seen by people who care so much about what happens in this country and who dream of a democracy for themselves, we're being seen from mexico to britain. we're being seen from china to brazil and i love, george, reading today that there was a little group in laos who wanted to he a vote themselves. why? just to be able to vote. >> we'll have to get the results on that. meanwhile, president obama is back in chicago where he was four years ago. jake tapper has been with him all the way covering the white house and the campaign, as well, and, jake, the president following familiar rituals today. >> reporter: that's right. the number one familiar ritual, of course, is that the president

played basketball today with a bunch of his friends and chicago bull scottie pippen. this is a tradition he established really a superstition during the 2008 primaries. he played on the day of the iowa caucus and won the iowa caucus. he did not play on the day of the new hampshire primary. he lost that and, of course, the fact that he didn't play basketball was the reason he lost that, so the superstition has been with him ever since and plays basketball on any big primary, caucus or election day and, of course, he played today. he's also been spending a lot of time with his old friends from chicago and a lot of the old team from his 2008 campaign, some of them have gone on to pursue other endeavors or worked on the campaign instead of the white house and he's been spending a lot of time with them. he had dinner with a bunch of them last night. one of them, david axelrod, said to me there was almost a feel of the last episode of a long-running tv show where all the beloved characters from seasons past come back and appear on the show, though they don't expect that the show has

been canceled. it's just the last campaign for president obama. so he has been participating in these touchstone activities, george. >> but, jake, i want to intervene if i can for a moment just to ask you, because we are told that the president has written two versions of his speech for tonight. governor romney has written only one for victory. is this the case, two versions? either way? >> reporter: that's right. he has two versions, he says, you can't be too careful. and he is not one to try to jinx himself. this is a guy -- a lot of politicians are rather superstitious carrying with them things they pick up on the trail and the idea that he would come here armed only with a victory speech is not the way he views the race. they have viewed it for more than a year as a very, very close race. they have tried to do what they can to win it, obviously. establishing that midwest fire wall of states that they've really focused on, ohio, iowa,

wisconsin, if the president holds on to the states that john kerry won, the traditional democratic states and just keeps those three, then he will be re-elected. it is a tougher path electorally for mitt romney but as they have focused on that, they have always said this is going to be a very, very close race and i have a feeling that they would think it was a bad juju in order -- about they only brought one speech, one victory speech. i'm kind of actually surprised that mitt romney admitted they only had a victory speech but i suppose different strokes. >> he's projecting confidence today and by going into the states of ohio and pennsylvania trying to campaign right up until the last minute. david muir with him. >> reporter: and not only does he have a victory speech but we know how many words. you know mitt romney is known as a businessman, a numbers guy as his history with bain capital. very successful business history and had the precise numbers, 1118 on his ipad.

even with people at the polls he was traveling to ohio and pennsylvania, ohio, because that is the key state tonight for the formula to get to 270. it's very difficult, mitt romney would have to have a near sweep of the other battlegrounds. if he doesn't pick up those 18 electoral votes but one other way around it if he weren't to get ohio, pennsylvania could make up the difference and he's been in pennsylvania. he went there today. they've been spending money there in the last week. they're not guaranteeing victory there. i talked with a senior adviser who told me though the race is very close according to their internal numbers and saw real opportunity particularly among independent voters, voters who liked the moderate mitt romney, who remembered his tenure as massachusetts governor in the suburbs of pittsburgh and the suburbs of philadelphia so he went to pittsburgh and philadelphia today and there was a moment when he got off the plane, george and diane in pittsburgh and he saw that there were supporters gathered at a parking garage on several levels of the parking garage. he looked over and they started cheering him on and it was funny. we asked him afterward what he made of that sight.

he was not expecting it and he said, well, intellectually i'm prepared to win this race tonight but emotionally i hadn't gone there yet. emotionally it registered with me when i was surprised by the number of people who were waiting for him to arrive there in pittsburgh. it was a powerful moment. he put his hand on his heart and wafered to the crowd, very excited and hopeful they'll be able to pull a pennsylvania tonight but, george and diane they've been talking a confident talk on ohio and believe they have a real chance there because of independence and because of their ground game. they say far ahead of where the mccain team was four years ago. >> all right, david and when we come back, we're going to have more on virginia, those electoral votes. 13 electoral votes critical stat state, as you know, it's been a photo finish in the old dominion state and we'll tell you what we have learned with we come back. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 will return in a moment.

mary gonzales had a cold, she also has asthma. so she sees her allergist who has a receptionist susan, who sees that she's due for a mammogram. mary has one that day. that's when she finds out she has a tumor. she has a successful surgery and because her health provider, she has her life. i don't know what you have but i have kaiser permanente. kaiser permanente. thrive >> announcer: "your voice, your

vote," election night 2012, live from times square, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we are back. polls closing in the big battleground state of ohio in just seven minutes and now that we're back, diane, we want to show all of our viewers one of the tools to show all of them the paths that each campaign has, the all-important 270 electoral votes. barack obama starts out with a solid lead in blue states adding up to 237 electoral votes. you see it right there, mitt romney has 206 electoral votes pretty solidly locked up coming into tonight and bring in matt dowd as we talk about the importance of virginia, matt, we made the point early on that mitt romney really does have to win virginia, not only virginia but also florida in the southeast to be competitive in this race tonight, but that is

not enough. as we move to the midwest he's going to have po pick off one of the key states in barack obama's fire wall, either ohio or wisconsin because you see what happens right there, if the president gets both ohio and wisconsin he only five votes away from an electoral lock. >> well, this is the difficult route that br has. he has to take the atlantic coasts sta s states and move i into the midwest and start picking off midwestern states. early in the night if he sees trouble in those, it's going to be a very difficult night for mitt romney. he has to win those three atlantic coast states. >> if he doesn't, if the president wins any one if we go back to the what if board in the middle. any one of these in play where he's ahead or tied he has 270 electoral votes. >> let's head off to richmond, virginia, with amy klobuchar

robach. i know you're at a dnc headquarters. >> reporter: i'm wearing purple. it was completely coincidental but very appropriate because this is a solid purple state, virginia is a divided state and many describe it as two different states. you have the northern part of virginia and then the rest of this state. i actually had the opportunity of heading out to fairfax county, mclean, virginia, to talk to a group of neighbors who had competing sign, campaign signs, one romney, one obama and they were talking about what was driving them to the polls and it was interesting, they weren't talking about the economy, they were talking about social issues, talking about abortion, gay marriage, church versus state, health care reform and they were very passionate about these issues, and that's what's going to decide this election here in virginia. it's going to be enthusiasm and mitt romney needs enthusiastic voters in the southern part of the state, coal country in the southwest areas, military stronghold and more importantly he needs those x-burbs, prince

william county that voted for obama in 2008 to swing in his direction to come out in droves to make the difference for him because as we heard george mention, virginia is virtually a must win for romney. it's a fire wall for obama. it's a luxury for obama. but romney needs virginia, guys, back to you. >> right now it is a state that cannot be called. the votes still coming in in virginia. many more results coming in including the big battleground state of ohio coming up at 7:30. a lot of other big states coming in at 8:00. by 8:00 half the country will have voted. diane, we will be right back with more. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 will return in a moment.

>> announcer: this is an abc news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012, live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and good evening, and welcome back on this 57th presidential election in the history of the united states. i want to show you again people all across this country still at the polls, still waiting in line, some of them, and so many people showing up to say, this election matters. they will -- they will vote in "your voice, your vote." >> they have been voting for weeks already all across the country, diane. >> want to tell everybody that the polls have now closed in three more states including the

critical battleground of ohio. we have just one projection to make here, let us tell you about it. it's west virginia, abc news based on exit polls is ready to project the winner in west virginia is mitt romney. president obama was very unpopular in this state. >> no surprise there, diane. it's not even clear that the democratic senator from west virginia has voted for president obama. >> that's true. he wouldn't say if he was going to vote for the president or not. north carolina, we know this is still competitive. we do not have enough information and president obama won this. it was his narrowest victory in '08, 14,000 votes and so as we know, this is going to be a close one, and historically it's been hard for democrats to win there. now, ohio. >> that is the big one. >> ohio, ohio, we want to know what ohioens said today but we do not have enough information in at this point and will keep you up to date. >> no state has gotten more

attention than the state of ohio. you would have thought they were running for governor there. it's gotten the most ads, had the most visits. i want to bring in ron brownstein on this. you crunched all the numbers on ohio and you have a great phrase. it's been heartbreak hill for democrats, which is why president obama invested so much so early in that state. >> you can't underscore how unusual it is. it is a fire wall for a democrat, not a republican candidate. usually in close races, they have always leaned towards republican but the key die flamic in hoye a year when president obama is looking at a weak performance nationally among blue collar working class whites who used to anchor in ohio as well as wisconsin he is running significantly better nationally among those blue collar workers and mitt romney hasn't been able to get over at hill in the pre-election polling at least. >> to matt dowd and have a conversation.

matt, you have been talking over and over again about how we're seeing a changing america tonight. we're watching big dynamics at work. what is ohio going to tell us about the big dynamic at work. >> to me ohio is so representative of the cut as a whole. it's a state that's both a midwestern state and southern state, cincinnati is more like kentucky. the northern part is much more like michigan. where race plays out, black and white. the working class versus the royalty play out. it is a state a micro come of the country as a whole and i think as we watch ohio tonight as ohio goes because it's so representative of the country, ohio is going to really tell us in a small way what the whole country is doing. >> george, it was a state where one big issue really did define the race, and that is the auto bailout. some numbers from our exit polls talking about approval. 59% of voters in that state approve. 36% disapprove and how the vote broke out of that, as well.

75% going to president obama. big issue for him in that state. >> big issue and an issue that divides the two parties on their fundamental view of the relationship, the government to the economy and this explains why late in the campaign, mr. romney put up a controversial ad about the movement of jobs or not, that's what the controversy is about, to build jeeps in china. right to the very end the romney campaign knew this was a very salient -- >> about chrysler. interesting thing happened today, chrysler gave all of their workers the day off to go vote. >> that's right because they said they are not moving those jobs. i want to go to jonathan karl now. we're talking 880,000 jobs by some estimates that relate to the auto industry in ohio. >> and, diane, this was an issue that the obama campaign started pummeling romney with almost from the day he clinched the nomination, there was an article

he wrote, i'm sure you remember in "the new york times," an op-ed by mitt romney. the headline, "let detroit go bankrupt." now, romney didn't write the headline. he wrote the article. his headline was a new path forward for detroit but a top romney adviser told me some time ago that if he loses this race, this may be the headline that cost him the presidency. >> okay, we want to head out just a second, i'll get right back to you because ron claiborne wants to weigh in. he's in ohio, he's in columbus right now and you are there at the secretary of state's office and we know every single vote, every polling place is being watched tonight, ron. >> reporter: they're being watched very closely and, diane, 1.6, 1.8 million voters actually voted early either by absentee ballots or in person going to early voting stations. those will be the first votes counted. we start to get those in about 20, maybe 30 minutes from now. we will get an indication, for

example, if there is a high turnout in those early voting areas around cleveland. that would be very favorable to president obama. and meanwhile, as you were saying, the auto bailout has figured prominently in this state something like one in eight jobs are involved in the auto industry and the obama campaign was able to really bludgeon mitt romney with that issue in recent days in a way magnifying romney's attack line saying that those jeeps would be built in china. the response was so overwhelming by the obama administration and auto executives it may have caused that line by governor romney to backfire on him. this state has reel by been the target of so many appearances by the candidates, really since the beginning of the year, there is a pittsburgh post-gazette cartoon i want to bring up if we can which very comically illustrates the importance of the state. shows a bunch of kids in a classroom looking at a map of

the united states and the entire united states, it says "ohio" and one child says "i like the new map. it's a lot easier than memorizing the 50 states." that really kind of wraps it up in terms of the importance for the candidates, again and again governor romney and the president were here as recently as yesterday. i talked to some ohio voters in the last couple of days about the saturation of coverage. if you watch tv in this state, you literally see one tv commercial after another for political candidates, they say they can't wait till those commercials are over. they will end today. >> a lot of people turned off their phones, as well, ron claiborne. want to go to donna brazile. you've run democratic campaigns. what you saw was a two-front war by the democrats here. ron claiborne talked about bludgeonen on the airwaves those commercials and also the president invested an awful lot of money on the ground in ohio in getting out his votes and had allies in organized labor >> that's right. look, they spent a lot of time

identifying new voters. had a huge number of young people and african-americans and others register to vote. the organized labor community, that's a great deal, as well and turned out their vote in ohio. >> all right. i'm going to interrupt for just a second. you hear that sound, that signals we're ready to project yet another state and here it is. it is south carolina, and abc news based on exit polling is ready to project mitt romney. even though he hasn't been there since the primaries. >> highly contested in the primaries, not the general election. let me bring that to nicolle wallace. this was something that the romney campaign was also not going to get caught short on, the ground game in the state of ohio and remember when president bush won it in 2004 and they say their turnout operation is bush's operation on steroids >> that's right. they wanted to go toe to toe with the obama machine, if you will, which was modeled after the bush machine which matt

throuand i built in 2004. romney started with a deficit in ohio and they knew they had to dig out of the hole that was created by all those negative ads and also knew they were in an uphill battle. wait, our last ad is going to take this on, they said, it's going to help correct it. they understood the stakes in ohio. if that single ad didn't correct what they understood to be a deficit with the voters in ohio, not just people who work in the auto industry but all ohioans care about the state's economy. that was so critically important and i think -- they're still hoping in these final hours that did the trick for them. >> let's go back to abc's david muir with the romney camp because you've been hearing some things on the ground there. david, tell us. >> reporter: yeah, it's really some extensive work we did with both ground games over the weekend, diane, the obama camp and romney camp and i can tell you in particular when you go into some of these ground game offices, we were in one in the suburbs of cleveland, you walk in and the phones are all going.

they have automatic robo calls with people manned at each telephone looking for voters who leaned republican but who might not have gone out to the polls. it's a much more sophisticated operation than they believe mccain had four years ago and also went out with a group of men who had given up their sunday, their cleveland browns game to go out and try to find some more votes for romney but the belief is that there are fewer than 2% in the final weekend before election day in ohio who had yet to make up their mind. one moment struck me in one suburb and neighborhood and there was a gentleman taking the groceries out of his car, his name was russ and the volunteers approached him and he said i haven't decided but i have enough material. i've been contacted by both campaigns. they left the driveway then i asked them where are you leaning? and he told me i'm leaning president obama. and it was interesting because he would fit the demographic we've seen romney doing better among white men, blue collar in some of these states, he's an

electrician, a father but said he was leaning obama one word, bain and as you know the obama campaign really hammered mitt romney particularly in the state of ohio for months even before the debate on bain capital. this is a man who fit into a demographic with better numbers for romney across the board but in ohio in particular he said he was leaning for the president, that's not diminishing their efforts on the ground game and continue them right up until today and say if they prove to be victorious in ohio and they believe it will it will be all about the ground game being vastly improved from four years ago, diane, george. >> and overcoming that saturation advertising you were talking about there, david muir. in fact, somebody said they were getting 18 phone calls a day and they just turn off their phones. every time it rings they just turn it off. i want to go back to cokie roberts. you're about to weigh in. >> it's interesting that russ was for president obama, if, in fact, it turns out he votes for him because what we're seeing getting back to math's

overarching point this election is about a country that is vastly different from the country that most of us grew up in. white men in this electorate are about 34% of the vote. look around the boardrooms of america and you would think it's 100% of the population and when you have a party where you have white men being the main focus and that has been the main focus of romney's campaign, it's just not enough of them to make it. so you need them to pull in some white women and some college educated women and we've got to see how that goes through the night. >> not enough to make it. back to matthew dowd but in the state of ohio, so many of them like what president obama did on the auto bailout. >> and the economic situation in ohio is actually blunted some of that situation that may be going on in the rest of the country. to me this election is going to be so much as we look forward and we look at the preliminary information is what does the

country look like because there is a -- you can create a scenario where mitt romney does better and there's more conservatives vote this year, he does better among conservatives than bush did in 2004. there is a higher share of white evangelicals and he still loses. that's what's amazing because the country in many ways has become polarized and is changing and that's the interesting thing to be watched as the evening goes on. >> i don't want to pile on white men. they'll get abused enough tonight. >> not by me. >> don't look at me. >> politico reported today that we already know before the returns come in that when the house democratic caucus meets in january, white males will be in a minority. it's never happened anything like that in american history. second, george, beginning in 1968 when the south moved firmly into the republican camp, the republican strategy for getting to 270 was simple, caray the 11 states of the old confederacy plus oklahoma and kentucky and most of the mountain states, new

mexico and arizona pen pick off a few here or there and spend the gross national product of brazil to carry ohio then you get to 270. ohio now as ron said is no longer -- it's the fire wall for the democrats and we keep saying the south. george, i think a third of southern voters live in the three coastal states of north carolina, virginia and florida, and they're not southern anymore in many ways, north carolina is almost defined in some ways by the research triangle in the raleigh-durham area. northern virginia has nothing to do with southern virginia and florida goes its own merry way. >> those are all close right now. >> we'll watch all these dynamics tonight, geographically and by gender, all of these questions about race and ethnicity but want to bring in barbara walters right now, as we know, founder and co-host of "the view" among many other roles at this network. you interviewed every president

back to richard nixon, i believe and every first lady beyond that. tell us about the role of the first ladies because they were instrumental in hoye, too. they were there a lot there too. >> i can remember when there has been an election in which the first -- the wives played the kind of role that they did. first of all, in humanizing their husbands, each of them appeared prime time at their husband's conventions saying in effect i love my husband, he's a good man so you should love him too and we were poor, let me tell you about our beginning and michelle obama saying we couldn't afford anything, ann romney saying i remember the first business. we didn't know that it would even succeed. and then they did all the television shows and there were certain shows, for example, like "the view" in which mitt romney did not want to appear because he said that he thought the participants were sharp-tongued. i don't know where he got that impression but mrs. romney did come on and both of them have been to the battleground states many times since the convention

campaign. mrs. obama going 21 times, mrs. romney, 27 times they went to nevada, colorado, iowa, wisconsin, ohio, virginia and new hampshire and these are the ones who have been the surrogates with mrs. obama, no, my husband is not a cold fish. we have dinner every night with the kids. you should know him. you should see that smile. i love him. you should love him. mrs. romney who is very close to her husband in the strategy, she plays a bigger role than just being the wife of, she is the one who said, he is not a stiff man. look at us. and, by the way, you talked about the grandchildren. there are 18 grandchildren. 13 of them are boys. >> all right. let us put that to the decision desk and see what that means. okay, barbara, stand by, team. we know you have so much more you're eager to say and we'll take a break at election night headquarters 2012 reporting on one of the great nights in

democracy, one of the great privileges it is to vote as the polls still are open and a lot of this country projections come in and we have more, of course, to report on what social media is saying when we come back. >> announcer: multitouchscenes courtesy of microsoft.

and we are back in times square, crossroads of america tonight for election night 2012, the results are coming in by the hour. a lot more coming up and we're seeing so much, katie couric, coming in already all across social media >> that's right. george and diane, you always remember your first time, voting, that is and a lot of people sent me pictures of them

doing that very same -- that very thing today and i'll read a couple. here's a young lady from rockville, maryland, tweeted. voted for the first time in my life, "my dad 84 first time voting, obama, 2012" then we have "voted before clinical, uva nursing student," and we have an emotional first-time voter. 27 years old, i just became a u.s. citizen this year and must say i was so proud to have the privilege to vote. i started crying as i was walking away from the polls. just whoever whelmed with emotions. #voteordie. and speaking of the youth vote, despite the fact that unemployment for those between 18 and 29 was up 12% in the month of october, by 61% of young voters still favor president obama. there was some concern about an enthusiasm gap because in 2008, 78% of young people said they were very enthusiastic about the

president but only 48% said so this time around. so it will be very interesting to see if they actually turned out. >> actually go and vote. >> right. >> that is the big question. they turned out at about the same rate as those four years ago. josh elliott. you have people gathering around. >> the anticipation is starting to build, people milling about and seeing on the giant screen surrounding us here in times square turning it into a virtual amphitheater. the votes coming in. as we project states, the excitement starting to build and i want to bring in first-time voters. we are joined by -- >> mary anne. >> where did you vote. >> new york. >> what was it like? >> it was very exciting and totally different, awesome. >> is it something you've looked forward to to this point? >> yes. >> are you -- what was the single most important thing to you tonight? what is it you want to see with

your vote? >> i want to see that my vote, you know, made a difference and was heard and i hope that that will be. >> who did you vote for tonight? >> i voted for mitt romney. >> one mitt romney vote, diane, and, george, again, we'll certainly be hearing from several more going both ways in a very divided electorate to be sure. we'll have thousands here by night's end. >> i want to bring it to donna brazile. a big concern in obama's camp for this entire campaign, huge youth turnout four years ago broke heavily towards president obama. they were worried they wouldn't show up this time around. >> they call it the sandwich program, george. they went back and, you know, recommunicated using social media. they really energized these young people this time around once again to come out in large numbers, i just received reports that people are still standing in line in virginia and one precinct over a thousand people still standing in line. >> even though the polls are closed. >> remember, you have the right to vote if you're in line before

the polls close. 1,000 people near college campuses, so i think the campaign is confident that young people will come out. perhaps not as high but guess what, they're just looking to get a strong turnout like 2008. >> the romney campaign didn't see the youth vote and mitt romney turned to those five sons of his and they turned to social media and i'm heartened. i know it's just one voter but i wished she lived in ohio but, you know, young people are the ones who really suffered the most in the economy as katie has said so they've tuned in getting their own information from very different places than older voters but the fact that they're open to both voters' messages and listening to the economic message i think is something -- you know, as again with the women's vote romney didn't need to close the youth gap. he just needed to tighten it in those battleground states and i think they're hopeful they were able to do that. >> but, nicolle, has the romney campaign seen that persuasion army that obama had going four years ago for the turnout,

because as we know, the president decided not even to travel to some places today because he didn't want to disrupt his turnout operation. >> in stark contrast, as romney was still out on the trail late last night and today so his turnout operation looks a little different but, again, he sought to build on -- he's a businessman so it was very deliberate. it was very mechanical and had all the structure of 2004 with the added technology that obviously we've seen lots of innovations. >> let's bring ron brownstein in on this from "the national journal." someplace where the romney campaign was playing catch-up but invested a lot in it. >> the generational story overlaps with the other big story which is a changing demography, it's the most diverse, over 40% of millennials are nonwhite. a majority of the kids born in the u.s. last year were nonwhite. that's why democrats are doing so well. on the other hand you have the baby boom moving into retirement becoming more republican. i think we'll see that again, 80% white and how we coalesce

and kind of unify, harmonize the interests of these two very large and very divergent generations will be one of the political challenges we face, for years, the brown and the gray. >> governor romney doing quite well with seen juror citizens. >> yeah and it's going to. >> the youth vote does appear to be turning out this year at the same level it did four years ago, so it is coming out, which we were not sure was going to happen. >> the seniors point is important because paul ryan was hammered over and over again about his medicare plan but romney did well with senior as cross the board. >> we'll take a break. thank you so much, cokie, ron. when we come back, 172 electoral votes are coming in as polling places close. >> announcer: this is an abc

news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012 live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we are back and a big crossroads, 172 electoral votes in the polls that just closed including florida and new hampshire but it is, of course, very early but i want to run through for you right now what we are ready to project, the abc news decision desk based on exit polling is ready to project that barack obama, the president, has won in illinois, of course, it's his home state, 60% of the vote last time. in massachusetts, president

obama has won there, it's a solid blue state, george. >> no question about it. mitt romney's home state but did not win it and also, diane, a key senate race elizabeth warren taking on scott brown, the marquee race tonight. >> abc news ready to project maryland for president obama. that's his fifth best state four years ago, no surprise there. oklahoma, it is a solid red state, that was john mccain's best state back in '08 and governor romney is the projected winner there. in maine, we have president obama projected to win in maine. >> also big senate race in maine, the republican senator olympia snowe decided she was going to retire, independent angus king, a former governor has run and won, an independent but he will caucus with the democrats, a pickup for the democrats. we'll talk more about that in just a bit. >> let's move on to rhode island, because we're ready to project president obama has won in rhode island. he is the projected winner based

on exit polling there. it was his third best state four years ago, and he beat john mccain, 2-1. there delaware, the vice president's home state, projected for president obama, district of columbia, possibly the bluest territory in this country, president obama has won there. >> right on the dividing line of north and south. one of the things we're seeing if we look at this map right now, we do see this red/blue divide. those coming in solid blue in the north, mitt romney winning those solid red states across the south. >> and now some other big contested states coming in. new hampshire four electoral votes but very important. we do not have enough information to project at this point. we do not have enough information in pennsylvania. we know that governor romney was campaigning there right until the end, and also florida, the biggest battleground, 29 electoral votes and not enough information but the polls have closed. >> voting continues, the big

states are coming in. >> announcer: this is an abc news special, election 2012. >> are you fired up? are you ready to go? >> i believe in america. i believe in you. >> announcer: the speeches are over, the campaigning done, tonight across america, your voice has been heard. your vote's being counted so who will win this crucial election for president? now the abc news political team takes you everywhere to chicago inside the obama campaign and boston behind the scenes with romney, to the heated battleground states across the country where this election will be decided and our team tracking your vote everywhere, in the crossroads of the world with the crowds in times square and with our partners from univision in miami, plus abc's barbara walters, katie couric and our powerhouse team telling you who's wning and why on this historic night, election night 2012. the stakes so high. the race so close, america's

next president decided tonight. it's "your voice, your vote," once again from abc news election headquarters in times square, new york, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and the polils have closed i 25 states this country, halfway there, george. let us show you, people are still voting, 25 other states out there and we are watching them. we don't see a lot of lines there but we know throughout this day we've seen so many people waiting for hours and hours just to vote. >> one of the things that makes this election different, diane, is that people are not only voting right now, they have been voting for weeks, jon karl has been following this early voting are to us with new information now. >> one of the key states is florida when it comes to the early vote and see an advantage once again for president obama in the early vote by seven points. but that is significantly once again less than he had last time around. but here's a very important point as we are watching the raw vote come in in a lot of these states with big early votes,

especially florida and ohio. those get counted first and those votes are going to favor president obama. he simply does much better among early voters. i went back, george, to 2008 and looked at the returns in ohio as they were coming in. at 8:30, four years ago, esident then senator obama had a 33-point lead over john mccain in the state of ohio in the raw vote. he did not win ohio by 33 points but by 5. be careful as you watch those early return, that includes primarily early votes. >> we'll put up on the bottom of our screen here the voting as it comes in including popular votes but look very carefully at the number of precincts reporting in because that will tell the tale of how far that vote has come. i want to give you a sense of our election headquarters here because we are out in force tonight. we not only have our team of analysts, you've just seen jon karl there, cokie roberts, ron brownstein, we have our polling desk behind them and we have

pierre thomas standing by our chief justice correspondent and as you know he'll stand sentry at the polls. katie couric has been weighing in from our social media headquarters and over here, our incredible team, the combined experiences incalcuable on election night and with presidents in close races and they'll be telling us a lot about this moment as they witnessed it coming up. >> our team in the big battleground states, amy robach covering virginia as the vote trickles in, what we have now of the vote, 13% of the vote has come in so far, right now governor romney has the lead in virginia, but, amy, we know this one will be close. >> reporter: it's absolutely going to be close. this is a purple state. we know there are certain areas of the state that are clearly red and that's the southern parts of the state, the

southwestern coal country and southeastern parts where you have a strong military base in places like norfolk and virginia beach, romney camp was really trying to create the enthusiasm in those areas, get the vote out and, of course, all eyes are falling on those purple counties, the exburbs of the washington, d.c. area, loudon county, prince william county. they essentially turned the election for barack obama in 2008 for the first time in 44 years where you have a vastly changing population in those purple areas where originally you had southerners, you had conservatives living in those areas, you had a huge influx of latinos, of college-educated women, also some northeastern transplants coming in changing the entire demographic of this really vastly growing population that changed the vote and swayed things obama's way but a lot of these voters are independents and that's what the romney camp was hoping to get them involved to get them out to the polls and that may be why we're seeing some of the numbers we're seeing, maybe not seeing a lot

of precincts reporting from northern virginia, a huge stronghold for barack obama. >> we have a map that proves that point and show all our viewers that and zoned in on virginia and you do see down here a lot of these counties down in the southwest have been colored in red, already, for governor romney, but up here in the northeast, those places where president obama might be stronger, the vote just not in yet, diane. >> to matt dowd because as you look at virginia, old dominion, what are you seeing so far? you're looking at all the early tea leaves here. >> the interesting thing both in virginia and ohio and the preliminarile information that we have nationally but looking at those two states is the theory of the race by the romney campaign is the electorate was going to look like 2004. the partisan break down would look like 2004 and the public polls in ohio especially had the president leading and in

virginia it had it much more competitive than they wanted. when you look at the composite of the electorate, it looks not like 2004, it doesn't look like 2004 so they'll have to do better than they thought. if that's the case among republicans, democrats and independents because their theory of the race right now, it doesn't match. >> we'll come back to all these big demographics later but jake tapper who is with the president in chicago. what do we know about what the president is doing right now, jake? >> reporter: well, a little while ago he left the fairmont hotel where he was watching returns and he went to his home where he is having dinner with his family, the president has spent a lot of time doing satellite tv interviews in these battleground states. he's done 16 total you were talking with nicolle earlier about, the best way to use a candidate's time whether it is to go into these battleground states to have rallies on the last day or to do other things such as satellite tv interview, satellite radio interviews, the

theory of the obama campaign is that going into these states not only gives you only one bang for the buck, for instance, going into ohio as opposed to doing 16 tv interviews with different markets also because they are so committed to this intense ground operation, this get out the vote operation of door knocks and phone calls, getting people to the polls and i'm getting their friends and family members to the polls, their fear was having an event in a state like ohio in this last minute would take away all these volunteers they need to be getting out every last democratic voter, obama supporter, instead, they would be doing advance for the president on the trip so that's one of the reasons why the president was doing all these satellite radio interviews up until recently when he went to dinner and why he didn't campaign today in person in these big very highly contested states such as ohio, diane. >> one of the big prizes of the night, the state of florida, 29 electoral votes and the polls closed at 8:00. a lot of the vote has come in

because of that vote. almost half of the vote in, 46% of the vote is in so far and you see what a close race right there, 49% for president obama, 51% for governor romney so far, of course, this is a must-win state for governor romney. want to go to abc's cecilia vega in tampa tonight. >> reporter: good evening from the university of south florida. this is going to be the biggest watch party in this area. this is a place where millions of votes are up for grabs. just the other day one of the headlines in the newspapers here called this area the pathway to the presidency. so let me tell you a little about this place. it's known as the i-4 corridor, 132-mile stretch of freeway that runs from tampa right here where this crowd is swelling all the way to orlando and this is the dividing line in florida here, we've got reds in the north, republicans, democrats traditionally to the south. this is the battleground that florida has been talking about that we've been hearing about, the micro come of america, one

of the biggest votes out here, senior citizens, 18% of floridians are over the age of 65. it is the highest population of that kind in the country. so one of the places we visited in the days we've been here driving up and down was a retirement center, the home of 10,000 people, senior living facility and met a woman out swimming one day with friends and she tells us she's supporting president obama because of his health care plan, she's supporting him because she wants to see medicare stay the way it is and she told me "i've never prayed so much in my life that he will win." and as she's telling me this tells you about the divide in the state right now, another woman came up to her and started screaming, mitt romney, mitt romney. and we spoke to another man in the seniors facility and he told us i don't think the last four years have done anything to improve anyone's life. diane and george, this is just a sign of not only how divided this state is how divided life is all around this country right now and really what a challenge

it's going to be for the next president to unite, not just florida but the rest of the country. >> and the health care issue, the medicare issue is a big turnaround, has been, at least, in the early polling before tonight among those 65 or older. a turnaround for mitt romney. >> we dug into the exit polls, 65 or older of the state of florida and so far they're breaking pretty big for mitt romney, 58%-42%. you see it right there. i want to bring it to ron brownstein because, ron, as diane mentioned, medicare was the big issue that president obama advertised in the state of florida. they made the point that paul ryan's budget would end medicare as we know it. their phrase. it doesn't seem 59 least according to the exit polling to cut too hard. >> we've seen white seniors moving in a republican direction in the last several cycles and if the ryan budget and moving medicare with seniors overwhelmingly opposed was not

enough to move them back it really is a generational realignment of older seniors toward the republican party. >> i see you shaking your head, nodding your head because this has been an article of faith. >> particularly democrats in congress as you well know and then they thought this would be the place they could just pummel the republicans and it really -- if we keep coming back to this what we're seeing here is not necessarily an issues election. what we're seeing is an american change of vast proportions and these older people are not worrying as much about their medicare as they are about having a more liberal activist government that is -- that represents minorities and young people and to some degree women. >> okay. we do have some more clues from the exit polls. we'll give them to you after a short break here at abc news election headquarterses. .

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>> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. now diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and it's so good to have you back with us again here in times square as the crowds begin to file in, looking up at the big jumbo screen here and i want to give you a look at this map here on our floor because at this moment polls have closed in 25 states, half the country, 12 states we have projected based on exit polling, a winner, and also the district of columbia and it's five for governor romney, seven for president obama, plus d.c., george. >> no big surprises there yet although there is one pickup for the republican, remember four years ago president obama won the state of indiana. mitt romney took it pretty handily tonight. >> david muir at romney headquarters in boston. have you seen any of the big advisers? are they coming out to talk to you? what are they saying, david? >> reporter: the advisers haven't come out but craig

romney has, one of the five sons up on the stage right now talking actually about his mother right now. but, craig obviously a huge supporter of his father on the campaign trail speaking spanish in ads for his father, well, here's what we know about the family. they're at the hotel right next door, the five sons, i've got a number on those grandchildren. i promised i'd get it to you after "world news," 16 of the 18 grandchildren are here and i believe the two not here are tagg's two infants, he has twins so understandable why they're not celebrating. on the menu it appears to be pasta because mitt's body man, what we call him, the guy who travels with him often and takes great snapshots and helps us out covering the campaign took a snapshot and appears to be pasta on the menu though i'm not sure if that's just for the kids and the plane landed after those two last-minute stops in ohio and pennsylvania and know that the governor had a snack, one of his favorites, peanut butter and

honey sandwich which you both know a lot about already so that's the update on the family. >> we are covering this campaign really up close and personal, david. we know that the governor has lucky milk shakes and the president plays a lucky game of basketball. we've been spending a lot of time with these two candidates. >> and continuing to learn so much more about the country tonight. i want to go back to matthew dowd who worked as a political strategist. nine out of ten we knew would vote for mitt romney and nine out of ten democrats for president obama. you dug deeper in these election exit polls and found a real ideological split and polarization of america right now. >> last ten elections since 1976 when we had good data and look at the preliminary numbers we have nationally. this is the highest percentage of conservatives that have voted in ten elections in this

election. more so than when president bush won in 2004. more so when reagan won in 1984 but simultaneously the highest percentage of liberals that voted. what that means the country is getting pushed more and more to the right and the moderates is the smallest number it's ever been. >> you wrote someone has to broker a peace agreement. >> the day after the election. >> the day after. >> because the divide is so great and we'll learn there's so many divides in the country, somebody will have to do that. both candidates appealed to the furthest edge of this campaign and somebody ha to decide it. >> we're ready to make joer projection, the sound that signals it. it is connecticut and president obama, according to our exit polling, is the projected winner in connecticut. again, george, not a surprise. >> the split continues. we'll watch a senate race there, as well. linda mcmahon from the world wrestling federation, spent $100

million over the last two campaigns to win a senate seat, try to. up against chris murphy, the democrat. that one is quite close. we'll have more on that when we come back >> that's right, when the polls are going to be closing and still more states, thousands of people, we want to stress this, are still going to the polls, especially out west to cast your ballots and, of course, it's been long workdays for people out west as they head in. some of them tugging their children along and we have seen it all day long, i still remember the woman who went out and she was in labor and she went to the polls and then she went to the hospital. that is the degree of dedication out there to get to these polls, the kind of civics lesson only five minutes apart, jonathan karl. please send your tweets and e-mails to him, would you please. we'll be back with more election results. election 2012 continues. last thanksgiving, about 2 million people

tried to deep-fat-fry their turkey. 15 succeeded in setting their houses on fire. at christmas, there was a lot of driving over the river and through the woods. and a little bit of skidding on the ice and taking out grandma's garage door. so while you're celebrating, allstate will be standing by. trouble never takes a holiday. neither should your insurance. that's allstate's stand. are you in good hands? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ girl ] hey! [ both laugh ]

♪ >> announcer: it's like the morning after the super bowl for politics and that's why first thing in the morning america turns first to -- >> george. >> george. >> george. >> to break it down may by play only on "good morning america" tomorrow on abc. >> red states, blue states. no matter where you are tonight we all have to deal with the workplace. >> is there sex in the office? >> now shhh, it's the workplace confidential. >> watch out. you don't want that on evening and welcome to our continuing coverage of election night in the area.gton, d.c. >> the polls in maryland and district closed about 25 ago.es polls in virginia have been

7:00. since associated press projects at president obama won the district. no surprise. yet.turns in the president has won with 92% of the vote in 2008. >> now let's go to maryland. associated press predicts that president obama will also that state with 1% of the vote counted so far the president has 66 pshts. mitt romney 33 prt. in the battleground state of it is still too close to call. data now. with 23% of the presinchingtses the president has 42% 57%.romney data.s just raw >> and of course we're waiting see how the power may change in congress because of the for senate. plays a big part in that with a race to the senate. 23% of the precincts reporting

george allen leading 53%. but this is also still raw data. >> we will be back a little

mood there? d is optimisticically festive. that.tell you in the ballroom here in richmond marriott. filling up ever since the polls closed at 7:00 p.m. and people are a little bit anxious but they are confident that tim cain is going to pull this out and i've -- it's been neck in neck race.

cain told us that all the advertising against backfired and earlier polls suggesting that he is this out but returns are still so lines so long of virginia te not know for quite time. but at this point i can tell y is just waiting watching the big d of course the big emphasis pretty much is on the but tim cane ce is right behind. latest from here. much.nks so can't tell you yet. i'm sure you would like to know. o very important questions maryland ballot. extremely contentious. has to do with same sex marriage right now we have 59% of the vote in favor of legalizing same sex marriage, 41% opposed. >> which means nothing because

we only have 1% of the vote. the other question has to do with expanded gambling in would include the construction of a casino in jorges county presumably at national harbor and only 1% of the vote in. so we have to continue here and we know that barack obama has won the state of maryland. he's won washington, d.c. that he has won massachusetts. elaware. vermont. don't know about florida, we don't know about ohio, and we don't know about virginia, of course. cnn had some exit polling. they're not making any going to s so i'm not repeat what they said but i would think if you're watching

cnn you would be pleased by projections are in terms of the exit polls. >> the night is not over yet. stay with us. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012, live from times square, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and good evening, once again, from here in times square, and it is the crossroads of the world, and it is election headquarters for election 2012. i am here at the big map to tell you we have three more projected winners to give you right now. from georgia, we are ready to project based on exit polls that governor romney has won in georgia which has voted republican six times in the last seven elections. alabama, down in the south again, governor romney has, once

again, become the projected winner and in new jersey, president obama is the projected winner tonight. it was devastated, as you know, by that superstorm sandy and still awaiting word how many people in the storm zone could actually show up. but we are ready to project that the winner tonight in new jersey is president obama, george. >> so we still see the north is going to president obama, the south is going to governor romney. so far just about everything as expected right now. see the states filled in that have been called already but we'll keep our eye all night long on these big battlegrounds where the campaigns have invested so much time and energy and money. the big states that are going to tip the balance tonight, the vote continues to come in. i want to go to ohio. you see it on the map right now if we can zone in on the board. we see about 20% of the vote has now come in ohio. president obama has 59% of that so far. governor romney, 40% and jon karl, i want to go to you. so much of that lead is based on the early vote that was made before today. >> yeah, that's exactly right

and, remember, i said at this time exactly four years ago, obama had a 33-point lead over john mccain. that lead is now as big this time around. in ohio what we know is the early vote was even more than it was four years ago, they don't break it down by party so don't know exactly who voted but the president has not built up the kind of lead that he had four years ago in the early vote. >> still ahead but not as much as he had four years ago, mean while down south in florida, one of the biggest surprises on the board, 29 electoral votes in florida, we all remember what happened in 2000. let's see what's happening right now you see 56% of the vote has beeneported so far and it is close, 51% for president obama, 48% for governor romney but nicolle wallace, who, of course, worked for the mccain/palin campaign four years ago i know you've been talking to the romney campaign. they look at these numbers and are not discouraged. >> they say there's still two-hour lines in gop counties and say they're feeling --ry, we

have breaking news. >> we do have breaking news. i love that everyone knows to stop and we're filling in the south. another projection to make. it is in tennessee. governor romney, our projected winner. it is, again, a very red state coming in for governor romney. >> nicolle, you followed that chime well. go back to the point. >> i'm easily trained. so they feel good about that i-4 corridor. they say in the raw votes and i know from jon karl they're not to be trusted but are an early indicator, a canary in the mine and are ahead in those raw votes in the counties they must win and feel good -- we talk about ohio but if mitt romney doesn't win virginia and florida, there won't be anything to talk about ohio, it won't matter. if he loses virginia or florida so they're watching those same counties in virginia and feel good about northern virginia, they feel like the margin hasn't gotten away from them and feel good about the rest of the state. >> donna brazile, you spent several months in florida for al gore back in 2000.

what are you seeing in the returns so far? >> when you say florida in close, i get a little nervous but what i'm looking at right now is in the southern part of the state, the democratic stronghold in proud, dade county, democrats are performing very well. we're doing good in the so-called i-4 corridor, looking at duval, jacksonville. if we can maintain the numbers that we have right now in that part of the state, i think it's going to be a narrow victory but it's going to be very, very close and i think president obama can still keep florida in his -- >> if president obama wins florida, he wins the night. that is a key to 270. he doesn't need it but if he wins it he's almost guaranteed it. let's go to virginia right now. take a look. 26% of the vote has come in so far. governor romney opened up a fairly big lead right there, 57%-42% and dig farther down to see where the vote is coming in. you see in the state of virginia and, cokie, let me bring this in to you. you still see governor romney has a lot of strength in the

southwest part of the state but you also see and maybe this is a bit of surprise, you look up north in the northeast part and see a lot of red up there in northern virginia. that's where president obama has to be strong. >> that is very surprising, and something that the president's team has to be very concerned about because virginia, as nicolle just said, ohio doesn't matter unless romney carries virginia. and if he's doing well in the northern part of the state, then that means that he could win virginia and that's a very big win for him, and that's surprising, because in all this demography we've been talking about all night this is a part of the state where it's high tech and very educated, there are a lot of women and there are a lot of women that are concerned about social issues. >> it goes to the question, diane, you asked before, i mean, you have president obama here trying to straddle not one but two tightropes, mobilizing very different coalitions in sunbelt

states like virginia and florida where he's relying on the new democratic collision of a growing minority population and these upscale whites and then in the midwest where that -- where those voters aren't as prevalent trying to reassemble the old democratic collision, the new deal collision centered on working class whites so you have two different -- two different paths that he is trying to piece together to get to 270. >> that's right. and there is -- >> one county to watch, loudoun county up north, bellwether county and right now romney holding a slight lead even in loudoun county. slightly early returns. >> so a true swing county and these are young folks too. >> this is not, you know, a bunch of people worried about young people taking their medicare check as way from them. these are the young people. >> okay, we'll keep track of this. let's go back to josh elliott down in times square. and, again, so many people have been gathering there. we remember the thousands from four years ago, josh? >> reporter: we are certainly on our way there tonight, diane. the crowd is starting to well.

again, numbers continue to pour in and talking about florida, what a key win it would be for either campaign and we have with us now some voters who really represent a micro come i think of the state and myriad issues faced there. joining me is beth from vero beach, florida, and, beth, again, there were so many reasons to have voted for one or the other. who did you vote for and why? >> i voted for romney. i'm a christian and i am pro-life and i like his stand against abortion. >> reporter: so social issue perhaps carrying your vote. i also want to ask -- our experts have been saying in a lot of way married white women may be the key demographic that could swing this one way or another. in the state of florida, especially in these last months of the campaigns as they begin to bombard with ads how coveted did you feel? >> oh, you know, i don't know if i felt coveted or not. i know i needed to vote the way i feel strongly. also as a business owner, i feel like the economy is where i need to be -- where romney is also,

has the same feeling so i feel like that's what i needed to do. >> reporter: we thank you for standing out here. i want to bring you in anderson. anderson, i know you voted for president obama. >> yes, i did. >> reporter: and, in fact, it's something -- it was something of an epithet that the mitt romney campaign used over years in attacking obama. it was obama care but, in fact, that was the reason that he got your vote. >> yeah, i have private insurance but i had an aunt who passed three years ago on thanksgiving and struggled with breast cancer and at a point she didn't have medical insurance and at points she did so i have an emotional connection to those out there searching for that help they need whether government assistance or somebody being kind enough to help them pay for private insurance and obama care from the government -- i love it. >> reporter: we're seeing the numbers come in. it's a neck and neck race. did you have a sense of that with your family and friends as you were casting your vote, did you have a sense of how close it would be? >> i have a feeling it's going to be a good one like a national

championship game but politics not football. >> reporter: there's so many stories to be told and we've just begun. back upstairs to you. >> like a national football game. again, 37 degrees out there where you are, josh, so thanks to everybody. but let's check in on florida, should we? >> 57%, and president obama holding on to that three points, 51%-48%. >> precision tweeting. back over to our headquarters and katie couric. >> i think turnout is anecdot anecdotally appears to be high in the state of florida if the long lines are any indication. we're getting photos from voters like this one, anthony posting long voting lines in cape corporal, coral, a three-hour wait. 66% of all hispanic voters favor president obama and coco in florida tweeting me, obama supports fair immigration policy

and embraces hispanic diversity, e.g., sotomayor and the overall sentiment for the candidates seem very evenly split. dead even over the last seven days with 50% positive, 50% negative for both president obama and governor romney. >> right down the middle. okay, katie couric, thanks very much. of course, the white house, the big story tonight control of the senate also at stake tonight. we have news there, as well. it's in the state of connecticut. congressman chris murphy has defeated linda mcmahon, a close election. we'll project that chris murphy will defeat linda mcmahon, her second run. to jon karl. she spent $100 million. combine that hold for the democrats with the pickup of angus king in maine and looking much more difficult for the republicans to take control of the senate. >> yeah, because now they have to have a net gain of five to guarantee control and just lost one prime chance they had to win there in connecticut. they can still do it but that path is really narrow.

watch now massachusetts. i just took a look at where the presidential vote is there. not surprisingly barack obama is ahead by 20 points, the question is scott brown, the republican senator from massachusetts, can he hang on in a state that is going so overwhelmingly for the president? if they lose there that's another reblican loss and then you can pretty much say takeover is impossible. >> a see a hand weighing in. i referred to ron brownstein as the human google search. so he'll tell us something. >> and connecticut really underscores why it's so difficult for scott brown. we're seeing the lowest level of swift ticket voting between the president and senate in decades. chris murphy win as cording to the exit poll roughly nine in ten voters who voted for barack obama. makes it very difficult for republicans to win in blue states in the senate races and -- >> that will be a problem. because we'll get into hot senate races in north dakota, montana, nebraska which are currently held by democrats where the president is likely to lose. >> chris murphy won even though

linda said, it's okay, you vote for president obama but vote for me, as well. >> she has run so hard, so long, with so much money. and, again, we will come back with so much more as we continue telling the story of "your voice, your vote," your decision when we come back to abc's election night 2012. stay with us. >> announcer: multi touch screens, courtesy, microsoft. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]

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>> announcer: abc news live coverage of election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we are back here at abc news election headquarters. right now in times square, i want to bring you up to date because the polls have closed in 26 states and the district of columbia and so far we have projected eight for governor romney, nine for president obama and the district of columbia. >> no surprises yet in the presidential race. the big battleground states are still out. we are here with our entire team of experts and analysts and have our reporters out in the battleground states and also right now have president obama's senior adviser david axelrod working the white house, worked on both his campaign, one of his longest serving advisers. david, thanks for joining us

tonight. what's the most encouraging news you've seen tonight? >> well, i see several of them in the state of ohio when we looked at the early vote which is really what was first available to us we were winning 578% of t-- 57% of the vote in hamilton county. 56% in franklin county and 70% cuyahoga county, 2008 level numbers for us so we exceeded our own expectations in those areas. in virginia, you look at the suburbs around richmond like chesterfield and see mitt romney underperforming, places where he needs to really roll up the numbers in order to win the state -- >> let me stop you right there. let me stop you on virginia. we're looking at the virginia map right now, and it looks like president obama is having a little more difficulty up in the northern part of the state than i would have expected. >> well, george, first of all, as you know, that vote is coming in slowly because the lines were so long up there but everything

we see gives us encouragement in virginia. we always said it would be a narrow race, but we don't see -- we think we're hitting our targets. we don't believe he's hitting hissing its and look in florida, a state several weeks ago the romney campaign suggested was in tow, they are with more than half the vote counted they're trailing there, so, you know, we're very enurge coulded by what we see following the model of what we believed would happen tonight and think it will be a great night for the president. >> david, it's diane. when is the last time you spoke to the president? what did he say to you? >> i just e-mailed with him today because we've been doing other stuff but i just came off four days on the trail with him. look, i think he feels we ran a good campaign and made the case he wanted to make and had tremendous crowds in the last four days and gave the final speech he wanted to give, and, you know, at some point you say, we did what we can do, and now it's up to the people and he has great faith in the american

people and i think that will be vindicated tonight. >> as we know, governor romney prepared one speech and we're told it was a victory speech, the president prepared two. what about governor romney's confidence? >> well, i mean, i can't speak for governor romney's confidence. you know, our confidence is based in data, it's based in, you know, early vote numbers, it's based in the things that we can see and we can prove to ourselves. their confidence appears to be in some hidden mystical force that's going to materialize at the last minute and push him over the finish line and i think as time wears on this evening, that will be exposed. >> david, one question i have, as you -- because you've spent so much time with president obama, is this the campaign that president obama wanted to run? you know, you've probably seen a lot of the commentary out there that he's been something of an unhappy warrior and was much more enthused by that hope and change campaign of 2008.

>> let me tell you something, george, as i said, i've been traveling with him constantly for the last four days, and he is -- and he was upbeat and making the case about what america can be if we do the things we need to do to rebuild the middle class, to make the investments in education and in energy and innovation, the kinds of things that will guarantee a greater future for the country and a greater future for the middle class. this is what he believes in. he wants everybody to get a fair shake and a fair shot and everybody to play by the same rules, and he thinks that's how we build a strong economy. this has been true as long as i've known him, and i've known him for 20 years, so the message is consistent, the cause goes on, it's what animated him from the day he got into public life and he thinks that's a worthy fight. >> one more note, david, because we've seen the president out there with bruce springsteen in this roller coaster trajectory of the race and saw bruce springsteen say, i a little freaked out by that first debate.

what did the president say about that and what turned him around after that? >> well, you know, i would like to say just wanted to add an element of suspense but i don't think that's plausible. look, the president -- the president looked at the film. he understood that he hadn't made the case the way he wanted to make it. nobody challenges himself more than the president does. he didn't need anybody else to tell him he needed to bring it the next time and he did and the next two debates were real triumphs for him. so, you know, no one is infallible. people have bad days. he had one then, he came back strong. i think it stemmed whatever momentum governor romney had and you'll see the results of that in part reflected tonight. >> finally, david, we have to go because we have another projection but quickly i think you said you'd shave off your mustache if president obama lost the state of pennsylvania. how are you feeling about that tonight? >> first tell me what your next

projection is. [ laughter ] >> it's not pennsylvania. >> i -- i -- look, george, as long as you've known me i've had this mustache. my wife has never seen me without the mustache. i wouldn't have wagered it if i wasn't absolutely confident. it will be on my face next week, i guarantee you. >> we are ready to project mississippi, the state of mississippi, six electoral votes and governor romney has won mississippi by the way, jimmy carter was the last democrat to win there in 1976, george. >> that's right, and, we'll look at that map. one of the stories of the night. red in the south, blue in the north. >> and it has been this way ever since 1964 and, again, sorting out of the two parties, one solid democratic south became the one solid republican south. and what we're seeing tonight, i think, again, is that that was

not a fluke in 2008 when barack obama expanded the battlefield in a way that was disconcerting to republicans in places like north carolina and indiana, he's lost indiana, north carolina is still competitive, but we're seeing and if you believe in competition this is a good thing, we're seeing that more of america is competitive in a way than had been in recent election sdmrz we talked and we'll come back later and you and matt and ron brownstein can discuss this, but we talked about all the divides in the country generational, gender, we have talked about race and ethnicity, you keep saying, you have said over and over again differences are not a crisis, differences are not a crisis. >> again, if we were in the state of race relations in the 1960s and the map there would be more alarming than i think it is tonight because race relations are so vastly improved. one of the divides that puzzles me, i want to go back to

something matt dowd said in the evening, conservatives come in, who are these conservatives? we had a recent poll, i believe it was a gallup poll that showed that self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in this country, 2-1. hard to square that with the electoral map we're seeing. >> matthew? >> i think what's happened is there's now more liberals in the country, there's more conservatives and dwindling share of the moderates which now many dids can appeal to, and i think the problem that republicans that are entering into as we approach this divide, the divide in the country is actually benefiting the democrats because of demography because of the changing shape of the country and it's no longer as white as it was, more female, less religious than it was and all of those dynamics that developed over the last 30 or 40 years have helped the democrats win elections. >> but the country is more diverse, the country is more tolerant. the country is changing and that's a good thing because that's what we celebrate in

america. we celebrate diversity. in all of its forms. >> it also is possible that some conservatives are ideological conservatives, but operational liberals, they talk like jeffersonian, want to be governed by hamilton ians. >> i'm willing to conjecture mitt romney wins conservatives by as big or bigger margin than president bush won them in 2004. i'm willing to conjecture. >> but he does not have a mustache to shave off. >> i was going to say. we'll come back because everybody here is ready to wrestle with these big dynamics in the country tonight. we're going to take a break right now. coming up, there are so many polling places still open. last voters in line, 14 more states closing their polls. colorado and wisconsin are among them. key battleground states. >> they sure are. right now colorado is still tied. wisconsin, the home of the vice presidential candidate on the republican side paul ryan, he fought hard here, spent more

than $4 million in this congressional district. we'll have all the latest on all of the battleground states, abc news election night 2012 continues, both coming in, a lot of big states coming up. avings, not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. ♪ ...mom's smartphone... dad's tablet... or lauren's smartphone... at&t has a plan built to help make families' lives easier. introducing at&t mobile share.

one plan lets you share data on up to 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. add a tablet for only $10 per month. at&t. evening. back to vote 2012 in first an nt but update on where things stand in locally. let's go right to how the

presidential race is shaping up virginia. right now with 41% of the vote counted mitt romney is ahead by 54%. t barack obama has 45%. t louden county, a weather and prince louden was tied but raw data not enough to make any projection there. , president obama winner and no surprise in ryland president obama that state. now just 1% of the votes, president obama has 73% to mitt romney's 26%. we'll have a look at where things stand in maryland on legalize same when weiage

you where show stand. with question 6 dealing marriage. so far with 1% of the vote in 55% -- 57% for, 43% against. now to question 7, in maryland. would expand gambling in maryland. vote stands at 51% 49% in favor. >> louden county, barack obama 50% mitt romney 48%.

>> we now return to abc news 2012.ge of vote >> announcer: this is an abc news special. "your voice, your vote." election night 2012. live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york, now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. good evening, and welcome back. and despite this 30 some odd degree temperatures in sometimes square, new york, where 182 million people come every single year, people are gathering there and watching the big screens. and we are big here at abc news election headquarters. we have our polling team. we have our team watching the polls sanding century. and we have our analysts and of course, we have our team of experts and insiders who have

covered so many campaigns and involved in so many campaigns. but we have a lot of states to tell you about. we are ready to project. and let's begin right now, 14 more states, the polls have closed. and we project, george, michigan. michigan goes to president obama. >> and that means that mitt romney has now lost his second home state. of course, he grew up in michigan. his father was the governor of michigan as well as, as well as the local president of voters. and he never had a chance. the auto bailout questioned in the state of michigan. >> here's another state we're ready to project. again, this is not a surprise, but texas is going for governor romney. you there have it. projected winner in texas, governor romney. in new york, in new york, a solid blue state is going for president obama. again, we do not know how many people ultimately were able to vote here. those results will come in later. with president obama's fourth best state in 2008. >> anyone affected by hurricane

sandy, though, could vote at any polling place. >> right. the lines were unbelievable today. louisiana projected winner, governor mitt romney. in kansas, projected winner for governor romney. in nebraska, projected winner for governor romney. >> so far, he's only getting 4 of 5 of nebraska's electoral vote. in two states where you can get an electoral vote by a congressional district. there's a congressional district in omaha. >> of course, it comes down to one electoral vote tonight. if there's some division popular in electoral votes, and that one makes the difference, nebraska could be it. and north dakota, we have a projection, again, for governor romney. south dakota, a projection for governor romney coming up tonight. also in wyoming, a projection for governor romney. and we have a projection in arkansas. i want to tell you that governor romney has now become the

projected winner there according to exit polling. we do not have enough information right now on two states, though, i want to tell you about, wisconsin, as we know, it was a question of whether it was really in play or not because the vice president, congressman paul ryan, of course, governor romney's vice president. and also, colorado, everybody watching colorado tonight, george. >> two important battlegrounds. we have reporters in those battlegrounds. all the battlegrounds tonight. we're also joined by ed gillespie, senior strategist for mitt romney. ed, thank you for coming on tonight. we just heard from david axelrod from president obama's campaign. he said all the results are coming in exactly as the obama team expected. is that what you're seeing tonight? >> well, i'm seeing they're coming in exactly as we expected. so we may be looking at the same thing from a different angle here. we feel very good, george, about the votes that are coming in, and where they're coming from. especially when you look at the

target states in florida. the panhandle, along the corridor, we're doing very well critical to carrying the state of florida. on the gulf coast, areas that senator mccain slightly carried, we're carrying in a big, big way. we're optimistic there. we're looking at virginia, ohio, the other target states. we feel very good that independents are breaking governor romney's way here on election day. and our intensity is up and our turnout is high. >> let me ask you, diane sawyer, hello do you this evening. the same thing i was asking david axelrod earlier, when is the last time you talked to the governor? tell me what he's saying right now, what he's saying all day? >> well, i haven't spoken to him. he's been on the plane. he mate stops in pittsburgh, cleveland. a little e-mail. i generally, agens a rule, don' talk about what i talk about with the governor. he's very upbeat. about how the campaign is

closing out and how things are going in terms of his message and the crowds we're seeing and the intensity. and to turn the economy around to create 12 million jobs, to grow the middle class and unleash america's domestic energy. we've made our case. we've made it very strong. and we feel good about this campaign and we feel like we have the momentum here on election day. >> ed, you mentioned that you feel very good about the vote in ohio. what is encouraging to you about what you're seeing about the numbers coming in in ohio? and is that still a part of the president's firewall that you can take away? >> yeah, we believe it is, george. when you look at coal country and the votes that are going to come in there. we feel good about -- >> the southeast? >> yeah, southeast ohio, and as well as the suburbs outside of cincinnati, suburbs outside of columbus and cleveland as well. i'm not sure they're going to get the marks out of cuyahoga

that they're hoping for today. lake county as well. and we're seeing turnout very high in the republican regions that john mccain carried in 2008. we'll far exceed those margins with governor romney tonight. >> and governor romney told reporters today, i feel like we put it all on the field, we left nothing in the locker room." did those last campaign stops he made today help? >> you know, i think they did. i think what we wanted to show our volunteers is just that. that we weren't leaving anything on the field. that governor romney was going to campaign to the very end and give it all he had. we've had volunteers who have worked countless hours, knocking on doors, making phone calls. and governor romney appreciates their dedication so much. and he wanted to show them he was there, too. he was going to do everything he could. we feel very good about pennsylvania, a state we haven't had a chance to carry a long time on the republican side. we saw the numbers about a month ago start to creep up.

we saw an opportunity there, again, coal in the west. and the strong appeal for governor romney in the suburbs when about 20,000 people turned out to see him there, that was pretty exciting. so we're optimistic tonight and feel very good about things. >> if yore right, you'll have the pleasure of seeing david axelrod of shaving off his mustache. ed gillespie, thanks. >> thanks, george. >> let me go to governor brown. we know there are very different views of who the electorate would be tonight? >> absolutely. the republicans are counting on the electorate, much like 2004 than 2008. what you see so far is the bricks lining up on what i call the democrats blue wall. michigan calling in there. if they hold the 18 states with only wisconsin and pennsylvania

still in play in all of them, add new mexico which they're certainly going to win. add ohio, you're right on the brink. both campaigns, no matter what road they start on, the end of the line is ohio. >> but there's a point here, imagine making the very interesting point about the nonwhite vote. and how it is curvie ining to t democrats. but it didn't have to. black voters used to be republicans. and hispanics were very much up for grabs for many, many decades. there aren't that many of them. it's because of things that happened in the body politics that have changed the view, and that's the other thing we're looking with women. >> it might have been hard for the african-american vote running against president obama. to nicolle wallace, one of the things you saw, going back to president obama when he ran for president back in 2000,

president bush, he got over 40% of the hispanic vote. it looks like mitt romney is going to get under 30%. >> in the 20s. george, what he did in 2000, he built on in 2004 by having almost an institutionalized outreach programs. we had an office of outreach. george w. bush believed in communicating everything in spanish and english everything he did. john mccain was in the 30s, mitt romney in the 20s. interestingly, jeb bush at the republican convention sounded an alarm. he said if the republican party doesn't just -- it's not just a message problem. it's a substance problem. we've been warned as a party. >> stupid is the word he used. >> nicolle makes a good point about substance. everything that i've seen over the last couple of weeks. black voters, latino voters they're not voting over racial pride.

it's about issues, it's about jobs, it's about health care, it's about education. that's what is driving turnouts. >> george, weigh in on this, it was kind of a race to the right on immigration? >> the superdynamic of the intermable debates that the republicans had. it was arguably that 13 months ago when rick perry entered the race, right to the top, the governor of texas, mitt romney made a decision to quickly flank governor perry on the right, on the subject of immigration. he came right against the dream act, promising to veto it. and in a few months after that, he was using the language of self-deportation that is making life difficult enough for the 11 million in the u.s. it's awfully hard to unring that bell. >> on the dwindling share of the population which is white male,

and on the increasing center of population of the latino voters. they're 400% share of electorate than years ago. that's the problem for the republicans. >> a couple of statistics that have to send shutters 2042, as we know, this is projected to be a nonwhite minority nation. and 35.6% of hispanics are under the age of 18. so there it is. but we have a projection to make. without our music. we need our music. many of you are tweeting you that our projection jingle sounds like the sound of the nfl plays before the draft is made. but abc news is ready to project that republicans will retain control of the house. maybe that is a surprise, but this is early, jon karl? >> this is not a surprise, but democrats needed just 25 seats. republicans could actually pick up a seat or two.

now, the big question becomes what happens when nancy pelosi -- she was the speaker of the house. a lot of people expected her to retire when the democrats lost control two years ago. she stayed on as minority leader to lead her party back to majority. that has not happened, does nancy pelosi stay on? >> the last time i interviewed nancy pelosi, it sure seemed she was setting up for retirement. do you think i'm right? >> the first only -- only female speaker of the house. and that was very important for her, talking about breaking the marble ceiling of becoming that republican speaker. i think she wanted to fight to bring that back. but it isn't a surprise right now, but we are looking at a list of republican freshmen who had come in with that tea party movement, you know, that was so strong a couple years ago. and who were from districts where they should have been quite vulnerable. and it looks like they've held on, many of them.

>> and ron brownstein, if you look at the congressional approval ratings, at times dropped below 10%, it's hard to get an approval rating that low. >> absolutely. as we continue to see most incumbents winning. and also this is a reminder of how personal rather than party-wide the case that president obama has made against mitt romney. it's a case that mitt romney is someone you can't trust because of his background, he hasn't made a strong case for democratdemocra democratic governance. >> heading back to george will. >> john boehner was quoted a few days ago saying if he wasn't conceding, if barack obama wins, boehner said, we, meaning the house caucus of republicans, will have just as much as a mandate as he will. washington, again, when the dust settles may look pretty much as it did before the dust was

kicked up. >> after a total of $6 billion -- >> $6 billion. >> to leave the congress exactly as it was before. >> okay. let's take a look at the senate now because that is another question. >> we have another projection. senator casey of pennsylvania has won re-election. he is a democrat. out of the whole for the democrats right there, his opponent tom smith actually spent a lot of his own personal fortune. $17 million, jon karl, to make a run there. but it did not seem to get that close. >> this is one, late in the game, republicans thought they had a chance at. they saw polls seeing it close. this may be an indication of where pennsylvania is going in the presidential race. >> the candidates that spend all their personal finances, their children must be ready to kill them. this is not a good thing for family unit. >> okay, cokie, with that, we'll take a break. and we'll be back with a lot more states. a lot more senate votes coming in. and the searches on social

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he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief. >> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. now, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos.

and it is so fitting, as we look at times square, cross roads of the world here at our election headquarters. that we remind everyone how many people around the world die, literally die for the right to do what we have all done today. and we are being watched around the globe tonight. as we said earlier, countries from mexico to britain, to india, to brazil, china is watching every move. how many people have they designated to watch everything happening in this country tonight. and we got a wonderful tweet on why tonight matters because somebody says, "my grandparents made sure i would always be free because the whole world is watching." >> and we are getting more signs that every vote matters, diane. in the state of florida, where else, you look at 78% of the vote in right now. i want to show the map right there. and look at the margin between

president obama and governor romney right there. let's put that back up right there. it's just about a little over 1,000 votes. 2,000 votes separate them right now, 50/50 down the middle. with 70% of the vote in. i want to go to abc's cecilia vega covering that for us. cecilia, you're in the heart of it, tampa, that is the microcosm of that state right there. >> yeah, literally, george, millions of votes up for grabs. the university of florida. a polling place, watching students vote all day here. they're having a good time. after they come out to vote, they come out to this spot right here where they're celebrating in this right to vote and exercising their right. i'll tell you, you see a state call for one candidate or the other, this crowd gets louder and louder. you see the diversity of this crowd behind me. that is one of the big issues in this election, one of the

reasons florida is such a strong battleground state. latinos critical to obama's win here in the state of florida. making up a fourth of the population. a sixth largest population of latinos in the country. nearly 14% of state's total voters are latino. let me tell you about a man we met out here who has been driving up and down this area in florida, his name is yako. he's a cuban immigrant. he came into the country 15 years ago. he's a cigar maker. he owns a little shop in tampa. i said, who are you voting for? he said, he's voting for barack obama. that's different than the traditional republicans in the state of florida. i said, why are you voting for obama? what he said, george and diane, it's very telling and speaks for the state and the anger right now. he said he's voting for barack obama because, i quote, republicans are treating latinos like their ignorant. i said, well, do you like the

job that the president has done? he said, well, it's just okay. so that tells you how strong that divide is. and really, how much work both sides have to do to bridge the parties between latino voters. >> cecilia, while you've been talking more results are coming in. 79% of the vote. i want to go back to florida now. more results have come in. mitt romney has pulled over in the lead there. a 12,000 vote lead there. let me bring to you jake tapper in chicago with the president. >> hi, george. well, florida is one of those states that the obama campaign would like to win, but it's not one of the states that they feel like they have to win. if florida or virginia go for president obama, this election likely looks like it will go to president obama. but they're not counting on virginia and florida. they're counting on states like ohio and wisconsin and pennsylvania. oh, here we go, george. i'll give it back to you. >> here we go. this is a big one, jake.

pennsylvania, abc news based on the polls is ready to project that president obama has won pennsylvania with its giant load of 20 electoral votes, george. >> that's right. we saw governor romney go into pennsylvania today, trying to steal that race, steal that state away from president obama at the last minute. but he was not able to do it. he was doing that because his concern about the state of ohio, they believe this is their insurance policy against a loss in the state of ohio. now, the path for governor romney to get the 270 electoral votes is even more slim. he's going to have to win virginia. he's going to have to win florida. at least one of those big states, ohio or wisconsin to have a chance to get to the 270 electoral votes he needs. we're going to be back in just a minute. a lot of other states coming in. as we move across the midwest and the west, election night 2012 continues. ♪

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♪ ask an allstate agent about the safe driving bonus check. are you in good hands? d evening. our continuing coverage of election night. >> the votes really starting to in from d.c. maryland and of course the big battleground

of virginia. let's get now to the latest results. have an official result yet in the district but right now barack obama is winner in the district which may not come as a surprise since in 2008 he won with most of the votes there. from the district we moved maryland where they ojected the president will maryland.ate of we have about 1% reporting but you can see president obama 76%. let's go to the battleground state of virginia watched by everyone across the entire country. 55% of the rornting and holding the lead. and also weighing in there but looks like romney ahead so far. let's ge see what happens with congress as well. going to play a big part in that. take a closer look

here at the u.s. senate race. with 51%.en ahead republican. tim kaine the democrat here 49%. a very close race in senate.inia >> speaking of, let's get down is at george allen's headquarters and get the latest reaction. it is a crowded room here in ichmond. in virginia re awaiting the results and of of the he results .enate race is here with his family after a long ng day of campaigning in northern richmond. d around polls have been very, very close. he and tim kaine in a very tough fight for a long time. the polls most recently has shown the race has tightened up. in for a long night anxiously waiting to hear both candidates. we may not hear from a while

but when they speak we will be here. >> we'll see you a little later. now to allen's democratic opponent. at tim kaine's headquarters also. there?the mood well, a little bit tense but is growing. me here is brian and been told george allen is a little bit ahead but giving up at all. >> until i hear from fairfax other jurisdictions i feel ern virginia really good. 10% of fairfax has reported so it's far too early to make any conclusions. we're optimistic on this one. we'll win both with tim kaine and the president. that high voter turnout key. ig >> we're so pleased. stepped up. recognized the importance this election and traditionally the higher the better democrats do. have to wait and see. be here until it's all crowd is growing

and so is the excitement. thank you. get back in just a bit. we'll have more results good morning! wow. want to start the day with something heart healthy and delicious? you're a talking bee... honey nut cheerios has whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol. and it tastes good? sure does! right... ♪ wow. delicious, right? yeah. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... ♪ well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

let's go back to maryland. important questions. >> the first having to do with legalizing same sex marriage. again just 1% reporting. however we have for at 54% and against the measure at 46%. >> now, the other big question d is about expanded would include the construction of a casino in rince georges county at national harbor. the voting is still very tight but with 1%, the for vote is at 51 and against is at 49%. be here for you every half hour as the night progresses. watch the can also bottom of your screen for local results as well as check out

wjla.com. you back here about 10:00. >> announcer: live from times square in new york city, election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and we are seeing the electric jumbotrons. and it's been an electric night here back in the crossroads of the world, times square. and as we know, a presidential election underway that will decide so much for american families. from taxes to health care, as we said, george, from war to the future of this country. and right now, we are learning more about each of the states. particularly those states that

we have not yet projected that are key. >> big battleground states. we're watching them closely. let's start with florida right now. 81% of the vote is in right now. it's divided right down the middle. 50/50. it looks like it's about 500 votes separating governor romney from president obama right now. i want go to jon karl, you're digging into the state right now seeing where the vote comes in. what does that tell you? >> i'm seeing real problems for mitt romney. take a look at where the florida vote is coming down, even though it's tied statewide, look at the all important hillsborough county, tampa, this is where mitt romney carried. right now, he's trailing to barack obama, 45% to 53 -- i'm sorry, i hit the wrong county. 53, obama, 45, mitt romney.

miami-dade county, this is a huge obama county. this is one he won by 16 points last time. only 40% of precincts have reported in miami-dade county. so as those votes come in, that is going to add dramatically to obama's vote total. >> it's a photo finish. i want to go back to jake tapper because he's, of course, at president obama's headquarters right now. we didn't give him a chance to finish his thought. what are you hearing, jake? >> one of the things i want to talk about is pennsylvania now that we've projected that state for president obama. we talked a lot of the electorate, obama is anticipating these voters turn out. one of the big concerns that the obama campaign has, what happens to white working class voters. we're seeing that in wisconsin right now. president obama was even with white working class men in 2008. right now, according to exit polls, white working class men are go for mitt romney, 50% to

48%. that's why they're going after states like wisconsin and pennsylvania. but here's the thing in pennsylvania, they have lots of urban ces urban centers and the drive. my mom lives in philadelphia. today when she went to vote, she was the 383rd person. i just talked to valerie jarrett. she said she talked to mayor nutter, the mayor of philadelphia. he said, valerie, i got this. they're going to get the vote. i said what about wisconsin? she said, i think she thinks there's going to be enough young voters and young women. that's why you see president obama doing the things he's been doing the last few weeks, going on drive-time radio shows. doing entertainment shows. going on mtv. trying to get out to the young

people and trying get out to the women voters and of course you have the big city machines to drive up the urban vote as well. >> and at the end of the day, as we're talking tonight, as the states start to come in, we may again be talking about the president obama get out the vote machine which was awesome four years ago. >> especially in the state of ohio. the other big prize that both campaigns want the most. to ohio, 36% of the vote. president obama, 53%, romney, 46%. ron brownstein, take a look at thing big state. they both have targeted hamilton county. 7% of the state, excuse me, 56% to 42% for president obama, with very little vote coming in so far. >> which would be striking. that is one of the counties that flipped. a traditional republican party. hamilton county, biggest gains in '08, carried over from '04.

but he also in '08 was able to reduce the margin in a lot of the state that he lost. that's going to be hard to do this time which really increases the importance of him of avoiding aversion of hamilton coun county. >> i went to go to jorge ram ho ramos. >> we have to see how the lat o latinos are going to be voting. but we knew that most latinos are voting for president obama. but it has mostly to do with immigration. president obama is supporting immigration reform. mitt romney says he wants a solution. however, saying that it has affected him on the one hand. on the other hand, we are following the possibility of

having more senators. we already have senator marco rubio, and ted caruso is going to be the new hispanic senator. 40% of the population, and right now, we should have at least 17 senators, we only have 3. we're going to see in arizona if we have the fourth one. there are 24 members of congress who are hispanics, if everything goes right, we might end up the nice with 30 or 31. >> how many times have you said this is the postcard from the future with the hispanic vote. but let's talk about the economy and some of the improving unemployment numbers in some of these states, george. >> all across, and people feeling much better about the economy in the last few weeks before the election. i want to bring in the polling director gary langer who digs in for us and manages all the abcnews.com polls. one of the things you've seen before the final tracking that

president obama was closing the gap with mitt romney and who you trust to manage the economy. >> exactly, george. this was mitt romney's opportunity in this campaign to seize the day and trust the economy. the most pressing issue in the election. instead, in the exit poll, they're running dead even in trust of the economy. and then obama has a ten-point lead, on who has greater american empathy. if romney cannot win in trusts of the economy, trails in empathy, he's got a challenge. and that's one of the factors that's keeping the race close. >> even though he has the coe credentials, he was trailing in thinking he cared about people like them. i want to go to barbara walters, i know you've been in touch with the business community throughout this. what have they been saying to you today? what did they think was going to happen today? >> well, you know, the whole campaign that we've been hearing about, it's jobs, jobs, jobs.

so one would assume that the president would have gone to the business community and said, what can i do to help? most -- i'm generalizing, but even some of his backers in chicago were very disappointed that he doesn't seem to listen to anybody. back in december of 2009, he had a job summit. and some of the biggest heads of business came. and they all said, is this what you should do. and the president listened to them. and then said, yeah, and did nothing. so they feel that he didn't listen to them. he doesn't return their phone calls. if they call him, even some of his biggest backers, valerie jarrett calls back. so what they suggest that the president needs to do, if he wins, is to go to ego-stroking 101. i don't know who gives that class. but it's not just the business things about who's going to tax, who's going to do more. it's that he doesn't seem to listen to them. and if he wants their help and

he wants jobs and if he wants to help the middle class, he has to do a little more ego stroking. >> and president obama came in the last few days and talked about appointing a secretary. and governor romney sort of mocked that. i want to go back to virginia. nicolle wallace, we've got about 55% of the votes in right now. it seems as though governor romney has pulled a little bit, 51% over 48% over president obama. but president obama is still doing quite well in the county of richmond, enrico county, and chesterfield county. >> well, virginia, in a lot of these states, is the tale of two states, really. romney is watching the counties in the north part of the state to make sure they don't fall too far hiepsbehind. the flip side is making sure they don't get too far behind. think about what barbara said, that was the sum total of the

campaign message. not only are you not listening, president obama, but you don't get it. you don't know how to make jobs. but he didn't connect it to the empathy part. it isn't that i don't understand jobs, it's i understand how painful it is when you don't have one. if you go into the states and try to understand why romney isn't doing better, he hasn't even wrapped up the states that he must win in. it would be the inability to do what you talked about. i understand the pain of not having that. >> heading to the romney campaign headquarters. they're looking at what they've got to get down, david? >> and i've got to tell you, diane, i just talked with the key romney surrogate who just said, quite frankly, he's anxious about ohio at this point, given the numbers that they're seeing and the internal data, the early information that they're starting to look at. i can tell you in the room, you

can actually see senator rob portman on the big screen behind me who did the debate, with mitt romney, largely credited with helping to prepare governor romney for that key first debate where he essentially turned this race around, going into that debate. you'll remember that president obama had a lead in the polls, a significant lead, and how the tide turned after that first debate. and senator portman got a lot of credit for that. governor romney often jokes on the trail senator portman was so good at playing the president, sometimes he couldn't talk to him after the debate session. just to give you the mood of the room. one of the first states they called, when they called michigan. obviously, there was a little hope, given romney's history with michigan. they are from there. his father was a senator there. his mother ran for senate unsuccessfully as well. then they called pennsylvania. as george pointed out there was that additional trip to pennsylvania just today.

the romney team saying they felt they had a shot at least there. and that state has now gone away. so they're watching very closely, a very tight race in florida, as you've been talking about. and, of course, virginia as well. as nicolle just pointed out without those two states, they're very concerned with the early numbers coming out of ohio tonight. >> again, the intuition of crowds you're surfing that crowd. i want to go back to donna brazile and nicolle, the two of you have been at this crossroads before. what's going upstairs with the candidates? what are they saying to each other at this moment? >> they're calling everybody. they're calling the field director. they want to know who's in charge of the precinct. you can get more information. look, this is a very tenuous situation. especially in florida. i'm looking at these florida numbers for corridor.

president obama is doing very well, he's performing wonderfully, but mitt romney is doing good in the panhandle area. i'm worried about the south palm beach county looks good, but, of course, dade county is not completely in. you're looking at the numbers, you're calling in precinct camps and you're also on the line with your lawyer. >> george w. bush had karl rove and matthew dowd, they were ver roc ferocious consumers of this. at a certain point, the anxiety just takes ahold of you. it's actually harder on the families. the families are sometimes more anxious. in president bush's case, his brothers and sisters for have voracious for that granularity. >> we are getting more results from florida right now.

matthew dowd, now 83% of that in for the state of florida. president obama has swung into the lead. this thing keeps see sawing back and forth. >> here's the thing that you take a look at. you take a look at other statewide people on the ballot and how the presidential candidate is looking in relation to that. you look at ohio, you take a look at florida, in all three of those cases, the counties are the democratic places. you take a look at virginia, more democratic places are left outstanding. right now, if you're in the headquarters of mitt romney, you're wondering what happened to our -- what has happened to our theory of this race that we thought we had this, we thought we could win pennsylvania. we thought we could do all of this. we thought we were going to close out florida. and right now, barack obama's theory of the race so far has unfolded the way they expected so far. >> okay. we are going to come back with

so much more. again, we are watching every single minute as this information pours in. and we're getting real votes now. these are real votes. they're not exit polls. we'll tell you more when we return with election coverage 2012. music is a universal language. but when i was in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. to take a centrum silver multivitamin every day. i told him, sure. can't hurt, right?

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. >> announcer: abc news live coverage of election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and again, we are back, big states coming in. we are watching real vote, popular vote come in, george. >> they are coming in everywhere. also the projection in the senate. quickly i want to show. there's the map, the president's race that has been called so far. a lot of red, a lot of blue. no big surprise that president obama able to hold on to the state of pennsylvania that governor romney tried to take in the closing days. over sherrod brown, a democrat defeated josh mandel. jonathan karl, another hold for the democrats here. >> known blown opportunity for the republicans. they had 25 seats up for grabs and they have now failed in another shot. this is a state, sherrod brown,

they felt it was a state to get the pickup. they tried to recruit. josh mandel is 35 years old. he jokes, he looks like he's only 19. couldn't get traction in the state of ohio. that's one lost opportunity for the republicans. >> cokie. >> they're finding variety. going into the election year, it looked like the republicans had a fabulous menu in front of them of seats they should be able to pick up in the senate. they had all these retirements of democrats in republican states. and they had vulnerable incumbents. and so far, it's just not working for them. >> you know, cokie, in a lot of these states, we're learning that the name on the back matters less than the color on the front of the jersey. once again, over 90% of obama voters are also voting for sherrod brown. we're seeing quasivoters. and the electorate is now treating them in a quasipar

meant tear way. >> we'll have a congress that's more deeply divided along party lines than the one we just had. >> that's a conversation for later in the night, but it's a pretty depressing well. >> well, you know, hope transcends, isn't it? anyway, we'll come back to that. i've been watching katie couric over here. she's been monitoring. what are people asking out there? well, you know, diane, the twitter-verse is on fire. as you can imagine, there's about 65,000 political tweets going on per minute. so far, 18.3 million. take a l look at some of the things that are trending. we've heard about long lines in florida, also in virginia and ohio. so the first thing that's trending is stay in line. people are getting frustrated by those lines but fellow tweeters are encouraging them to stay put. because even if polls close, if they are online, they can still vote. apparently, one of the tweeters

is our very own donna brazile tweeting encouragement. busted, donna. and linda mcmahon lost a high-profile senate bid in 2010. she's running again. she spent an estimated of $8 million of her personal fortune. number five is interesting. the hash tag if romney wins. a lot of people saying if romney wins, what kind of thing will change. florida and ohio also on the list. by the way, the aforementioned mitt's body man who david muir talked about earlier in the coverage. mitt's body man tweeted this photo at the westin hotel inset for a big nigh. >> as we look at this map, president obama fighting close,

mitt romney needs to win in the northeast, florida, virginia and north carolina. we're not ready to project any of the states in the midwest put president obama having a somewhat more comfortable lead in his firewall, ohio, wisconsin and iowa. >> yeah, and these are those three states, ten days ago, the romney folks basically had put away, that were going to reach out into pennsylvania, reach out into michigan, reach out into ohio. and basically, the obama campaign said we're still competing there. it's going to be difficult. >> here we go. we are ready to project, new hampshire. put it up on the screen because we are ready to project the first big battleground state here of new hampshire. with four electoral votes. as we know, a small number of votes for president obama has won it, george. >> only four electoral votes but they are important electoral votes. another home state that mitt romney that he's lost.

he has a home in wilkesboro, new hampshire. he lost there. and to pull up the projection board that we have right now, that gets president obama, according to our projections, not all the votes are in right now. but if you add new hampshire to those solid blue states the democrats have won consistently. that gets them 29 shy, matthew dowd, of the votes he needs that narrows considerably mitt romney. >> when i said earlier, you have a theory of the race, and right now, the map is unfolding according to the obama campaign's theory of the race. there is no place yet that mitt romney campaign has gotten a state that they said was in their theory of the race. and that's a difficult spot to be in at this point in the evening. >> okay. i want to have -- can we have our music here. this is another big one here. minnesota, we're ready to project. minnesota right now. again, another state, the romney campaign raised a question, whether it was in play.

well, tonight, we know that president barack obama has won minnesota. >> they had hoped to get in there. they spent some money there in the final week of the campaign, but this is something that is always difficult for them. a solid blue state. jon karl, news from minnesota? >> i just want to say that david axelrod's mustache now safe. the three states that he said obama would hold have been held. these are three states late in the game that romney took a run at, pennsylvania, michigan and minnesota. >> and it puts all that much more pressure on the other midwestern states that are still out there. ohio and wisconsin. president obama leading. not in wisconsin right now, but the early vote coming in. according to the polls, ohio, he is still leading as well. the road is getting narrow for mitt romney. we have a lot more results coming in at 10:00. when we come back, four more states, including swing states of iowa and nevada. we have a lot more projections

coming up. . >> announcer: multitouch screen, courtesy microsoft. and it feels like your life revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as

fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. get headed in a new direction. with humira, remission is possible. >> from abc 7 news this is vote 2012 election coverage. >> and good evening. we'll get back to abc news coverage of vote 2012 in just a moment, but first an update on where things stand here.

>> let's get right to how the presidential race is shaping up in battleground, virginia. we're getting close to being able to make a call here with 73% of the precincts reporting. mitt romney is up by 4 points, 51% to 47% for barack obama. now, the results are coming slowly out of some areas of the commonwealth, specifically prince william county. we are joined live from there. as we hear, there's a voting backup there. tell us about it. >> this is why some precincts still haven't reported is because this polling location at potomac middle school closed three hours ago and there are still people voting, still people coming out saying they have waited in line for four hours. we want to show you how long the line was. when we got here about an hour and a half ago, the line was snaking through various hallways of the middle school. still an hour and a half. the voting officials tell me that about 9:00, some 2500 people voted here and there were still a solid 300 people waiting in line to vote.

problems, the voters believe, that there were only six voter boxes inside. only six boxes they were able to go in and cast. there's a very real possibility that the last person in line may not cast their ballot until 10:30 or 11:00 tonight. it may be that we are waiting on this precinct until well into the evening to see which of the two candidates virginia's 13 electoral votes go to. >> such a long night for those voters. a look at some of the maryland ballot questions when we com oh! green mountain coffee! how do you always have my favorite coffee? well, inside the brewer, there's a giant staircase. and the room is filled with all these different kinds of coffee and even hot cocoa, and you'll always find your favorite. with so many choices, keurig h has everyone's favorite. and i just press this button. brew what you love, simply. keurig.

>> we want to show you where things stand with two hot button issues in maryland. first is the question six dealing with same-sex marriage. so far with 19% of the vote in, there are 52% for and 48% against votes. >> and then for question seven, which would expand gambling in maryland, right now the vote stands at 53% for, 47% against. and also 19% reporting.

>> all right. now that's it for us right now. we'll see you back here in about 25 minutes. >> for now we rejoin abc news coverage of vote 2012. news special. "your voice, your vote." electric night 2012. live from abc news election night headquarters in times square new york, now reporting diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and look at the crowd now in times square. the pace is thickening on this election night. and we are now 7:00 p.m. on the west coast. the crossroads of the world filling up right here. looking up to the big screen, it's a big night, george. and we are getting some big states in and some big results. take us to the map right now and show everyone what's happenin >> first of all, let's look at the big map right now. those are the states that have

already been called. no big surprises yet. governor romney winning where he was supposed to win. president obama winning where he was supposed to win. but he's picked up a state of new hampshire with four votes. and he's blocked governor romney in other states. let's start out with virginia right now. let's look at where the vote is coming in in virginia. as we pull it up, we see that -- i'm going to pull it up right here -- we see 62% of the vote is in right now. governor romney has a four-point lead over president obama right now. we move over to ohio. in ohio, you see president obama has the lead, 51% to 47%. florida is still neck and neck. a lot of the vote has come in, in florida, 85% of the vote has come in florida so far. president obama holding on to a slim 1% lead there. let's take a look at what that may mean for each candidate's

path for the 270 votes. i want to put up in the middle of the floor here the possibilities that show how each side can get to 270. if you look at it right now, we've already given president obama new hampshire. so he's got, if you add new hampshire to the solid blue states, he's got 241 electoral votes. matthew dowd, that shows how rough the path is for mitt romney. even if mitt romney wins virginia which is neck and neck right now. even if he wins florida which is neck and neck right now, he'll only have seven votes ahead of president obama. he would have to win either ohio or wisconsin to stay in the game. just as an example, let's put up wisconsin right now, president obama where he's ahead right now, that gets him to within 19 votes of what he needs. and any combination of two states would get him there. mitt romney would have to run the table. >>s as the two campaigns watch this unfold tonight, as they watch abc news, one campaign is

nodding their head, yes, this is what we thought was going to happen. and the other one says, where do we go from here? and we're behind in states that we absolutely have to have. >> if you look at every state still on that board, president obama is either tied or ahead in every one of those. >> and i want to give projections right now if i can. one in the senate, and also one coming up in indiana. we've got massachusetts coming in. and i'm going to bring in jonathan karl right now, elizabeth warren is projected by abc news to have won the massachusetts senate race. and also, in indiana, we have a projection. congressman joe donley, another democrat. jon karl. >> yeah, these are two republican seats that they have now lost. now, they need seven seats the rest of the night to gain control of the senate. fascinating on massachusetts, if you drill down on this, scott brown in our exit poll had a 59%

approval rating in massachusetts. that is usually a slam dunk for winning re-election. incredibly popular, here is the problem. obama's going to win that state huge. and he lost obama voters 86 to 14 for elizabeth warren. one other point about this, elizabeth warren now comes into the u.s. senate as one of the most high-profile democrats in the nation. and also one of the most liberal members of the u.s. senate. we've lost a moderate, gained somebody on the left. >> i want to see cokie and ron weigh in here. >> i want to say joe donnelly, the exception to the rule, but elizabeth warren, and scott brown. voters increasingly are voting for one side or the other to be in control. and the individual legislator's ability to separate themselves from that is diminishing. >> and as ron referenced donnelly, he is the democrat we are now projecting to have won the senate seat in indiana, and that's key. because indiana, of course, has

gone for governor romney. the republican richard mourdock defeated long-term republican senator richard lugar in the primary. in these polls today, voters came out and said they would have voted for richard lugar in the senate today if he were on the ballot. but since they was defeated by mourdock, they voted for donnelly. >> when lugar ran six years ago, he ran with 81% of the vote. >> mourdock is a man who talked about rape in a way that made women uncomfortable. okay. i have more projections to make. well, at least one more projection to make. polls have closed in four more states. i want to let you know that in utah, we project that governor

romney has won 68%, as you probably know. is mormon, 68% of the state. 4% of the national vote. and we also have a projection in montana. governor romney has won there. it is a solid red state, george. but we do not have a projection, not enough information at this point in nevada. big battleground. >> even though 70% of the vote probably came in before the polls even opened. i want to continue the discussion with george will. you look at this, richard mourdock, a two-party candidate who defeated richard lugar. like todd akin, who has now had trouble. i wonder if this is going to cause soul searching inside the republican water, a year ago, republicans in washington believed that the senate was going to flip over to republicans. tonight, the odds are steeper than ever. >> i think, george, the souls have been searched and the decision has been made in the upper reaches of republican leaders in the national party, that the fact that republicans

kicked away three senate seats in their view, in 2010, in nevada, colorado and delaware, because they picked weak, implausible candidates. and now to lose indiana and possibly missouri, that would be five seats that they fell on their hands and dropped. and this is going to lead to pressure from the central republican leadership in the country to get more involved in candidate selection. so that this doesn't happen quite so frequently. >> matthew dowd, is there a potential republican leadership? >> this say problem that the fraternity is in charge of the campus right now in the republican party. there is no leadership -- wait a second, if mitt romney loses tonight, there is going to be a tremendous search for this. and the reason why these candidates have arisen is because the voters are now in charge of the republican primary of who they want to pick and this is their choice. >> well, the word "fraternity" spells out the problem. and it would be more of a sore

rotty. my blackberry is lighting up with people not involved in the senate race and saying i really hope this sparks a cycle of soul searching that results in action. our party does a whole lot of talking about how we need to change. again, i go back to jeb bush who was a featured speaker at the republican convention. it goes back to that and it now has a grave impact on the senate race. >> you talk about jeb bush. i want to go back to florida. 86% of the vote in florida. president obama holding a 50% to 49% lead over mitt romney. ron brownstein. >> you see the two biggest parts of the race inkencapsulated rig now. barack obama only 38%, and yet still in position to win because we saw the minority share of the

vote increase more than people expected. we're up to 17% of the vote being hispanic. he's winning more than two-thirds of hispanics. i think if mitt romney loses tonight, it comes when the words self-deportation left his mouth. >> the hispanic vote was 9% four years ago. there's some indications that it's now 10% which is a big change. let's go to david muir at the romney headquarters. again, tell us what they're sensing in that room, david? >> it's a very quiet room, diane. ron brownstein just talked about the change in demographics that perhaps will be shown in this particular election. the changes face in america. i can tell you when self-deportation was mentioned in the primaries, we actually sat down to interview the governor. we asked him do you mean people have to go back home and get in the back of the line which is some of the language he used in our interview.

and he said yes, go back home and get in the back of the line. he became a little more moderate during the election. those two words "self-deportation" as ron mentioned. i want to give you a bigger picture here on the romney campaign and ann romney who has been his soul mate and most powerful weapon. really for six years, mitt romney has been running for president. two campaigns. we know they're in the hotel here not too far from here. mitt romney with his feet up. his grandchildren running up and down the hallways of the hotel, do what grandchildren do as their papa, as he's called wait. the romney campaign has been telling me that they felt very confident about ohio. but that is a combination of florida, virginia and ohio. and so these returns have got to be making him a little nervous tonight. it's too close obviously in florida, virginia and ohio, they

really need to make the map work. ann romney in recent days perhaps of the two has been most willing to reflect on the riggers, to reveal the riggers of two presidential campaigns. visually emotional in colorado springs. and last night, she took to the podium. she choked up a bit. you could hear it in her voice, she said i'm overcome. she had said on "the view" with barbara walters a few weeks back, if they do not win this race, she's not doing this again. calling the shot there on the program. but obviously that indicates that her husband won't be running for president if he doesn't win tonight. but mitt romney himself said he's not going there. earlier today he was asked if he had thought about what he would do if he doesn't win this race. he said, well, i have my family, i have my life. that's valuable. 1,018 words that victory speech.

>> okay, david. nicolle wallace, i know you're reaching your contacts and you have some news? >> well, i just spoke to some former colleagues from my time with governor jeb bush there, on the ground there, the gop insiders doubted the obama are ground game but not anymore. they said they had a ground game, we've been saying all night, that was superior to anything that was mounted before. it's their judgment that it appears it's worked. >> with more than 86% of the vote in florida we show it again, president obama holding on to a little more than 35,000 vote lead. let me switch to ohio where more than half the votes have come in in the state of ohio. president obama, 51%, governor romney, 58%. let's bring that to jake tapper in chicago. and are they feeling it right now in chicago, jake? >> they feel confident. first of all, you have the people here in this arena who are cheering both every time there is a state projection for a victory. new hampshire was a big one.

pennsylvania a big one. minnesota, of course. but then, the question, of course, of what's going on in obamaland. president obama is in his hyde park home in chicago with his family. some campaign aides telling me there is a lot of cautious optimism. it's not over yet. we still have to hear from ohio and wisconsin. the obama team feeling good as matt dowd has observed. the projections they made about the electoral about who would turn out today have so far, and it could change, but so far has proven correct. so there is a lot of excitement about that state of ohio. there was a lot of focus by the obama team and their allies on ohio. on making sure that they had field offices. there were 131 obama campaign field offices in ohio, compared to 40 for romney. 100,000 campaign ads for obama in ohio, compared to 40,000 for

romney. that state is like a psychological experiment. you know, like those skinner boxes they have, those controlled environments for mice, for animals? ohio is like a political science, psychological experiment. a 40,000-square mile skinner box where these people were subjected to all these ads talking about how nefarious and evil mitt romney was. so the working class white voters breaking for romney in other states so far as we can tell, are not breaking that way yet for romney. it's more of an even race in ohio. so there is a lot of confidence right now. >> and they've been treating as a constant almost excessive effort for years to get that ground game in place, jake. i want to go to barbara walters because you were raising your hand earlier, signaling. do you have news? >> well, just when we were talking about mrs. romney and what they're going to do. you know, the president is 51.

if he lost, he has years ahead to have a career, to continue in politics. he said he may want to teach. i mean, he has a whole future. mrs. romney has said, this is it, if her husband loses, no more politics. she's not sure what they will do, no more politics. she is tired. she has been not just his constant companion, but his strategic adviser. at one point, she said a few days ago, she looked as if she's limping because she still has fatigue from multiple sclerosis. it's not just a very personal feeling for her. and it's not whether or not he becomes president, it is the end of his political career if he does not win and a whole different life for them. >> this has been a long journey. seven years he's been run for president. >> that's right. and we have to point out that mrs. obama said that the

president is running the last night of his last -- and the way she emphasized last campaign. everybody knew what she meant. okay, we're going to take a break now at abc news election night continues. virginia, ohio, florida, they may determine who may become commander in chief tomorrow morning. and who will give that gracious concession speech coming up. more projections when we come back right here in times square. i'm an expert on softball. d tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders

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♪ in the 37-degree temperature, did you see them out there? everybody looking up at the jumbotrons? everybody cheering. they come to gather because it is democracy in america. tonight, and our own josh edwards is right down there among them -- josh elliott, i should say. >> indeed, it is, diane. and i can tell you, it's a balmy 37 degrees. the hearty stock of wisconsin joins us now. i do want to mention, earlier tonight talking about the youth

vote. we have another first-time voter with us. your name and who you voted for. >> my name is cara and i voted for obama. >> you hail from about 30 miles north of milwaukee. why did you vote for the president? >> well, i agree with obama's policies on health care. women issues are a big one for me and also his foreign policy. >> what would be your biggest fear if mitt romney were elected president tonight? >> i would not like to see the tea party take any more control of the american politics. but it's not going to happen because i have confidence in obama. >> thank you very much. i want to quickly bring in jamie from appleton. jamie, you voted for? >> i voted for obama. >> and why is that? >> well, i'm a line mechanic out of wisconsin, it's a union position. and romney supports right to work and i think that's a union-buster. for my livelihood, it's a big deal that we don't lose a union. >> it's a certain we heard in several states.

i also want to lodge you, you are here doing yeoman's work, working to turn the lights and power on in greater new york struck by sandy. what are you seeing out there? >> a lot of devastation. a lot of people hurting. >> thank you, jamie. very quickly, we got to send it back. we have some breaking news. i did here the nfl drasticer. >> thank you very much, josh elliott reporting from times square. we do have a projection right now. as it is new mexico, and the projected winner is president barack obama. we also have a projection, though, in the senate. and here it is. senator claire mccaskill, the democrat, is projected to retain her seen in the senate, going again to jon karl. >> so this is the second republican that they thought for sure was going to win going down

over comments about ape. rape. todd akin made the comments saying women don't get pregnant from legitimate rape. that tanked them. claire mccaskill was seen as the single most vulnerable democrat. >> 61% of the people, coming out of the polls in missouri, said that akin's comment on rape was the reason that they were -- that they voted against him. so that was a huge upset. >> it is huge. and with that win by claire mccaskill in missouri, it is almost certain that the democrats are going to hold on to control of the senate. they have won the seats so far tonight that they need to win. we have a lot more projections coming up. red or blue. we want to know what you have to say. we'll keep looking at those battlegrounds, ohio, virginia, and florida. stay with us, election 2012 continues.

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the commonwealth. right now mitt romney having a 4 percentage lead over barack obama. but the bell weather counties of prince williams and loudoun still tight. >> if we turn over to maryland now, we take a look at the latest numbers from there. 36% reported right now. 63% for president obama and mitt romney right now has 36%. by the way, just 36% reporting, as i said, we had some problems with the state computers that get us their information from maryland. we're hoping for more updated numbers shortly. >> we were having numbers coming in from the district, but most called for the president. we now have numbers coming in from the associated press. barack obama winning with 93% of the vote. now, what an exciting race to watch in battleground virginia has been the race for u.s. senate. >> and right now here's the latest with that. george allen with 50%. look at this. a dead heat.

50% for tim kaine. he the democrat. george allen is the republican. we have 79% of the precincts reporting there. let's go to jeff goldberg. he is in richmond and has the latest reaction from there. doesn't get any closer than that, jeff. >> you really can't. i think the reactions we're hearing in the room are indib tifsh of just how close those numbers are. married people are confident george allen can win. some people are saying they're anxious. others are saying they're not confident. sir governor, when it comes to george allen, mitt romney, they ran as a team when it came to the state of virginia. how confident are you that they'll win in virginia snoent >> i think it is too close to call. as of an hour ago we still had people standing in line to vote in the biggest jurisdictions in the state. we thought if we went in tied, which we did, the enthusiasm would take us over the finish line. we're hopeful the message of job creation and energy independence will carry today.

>> thank you, governor. we're gonna be here throughout the night. we'll bring you the latest as things develop. >> all right. thank you, jeff. now let's switch over to tim kaine's head quarters. greta, what's the latest from there? >> it's a real nail biter. this evening started out pretty somber. mitt romney and george allen were definitely in the lead. but what a difference the last hour or two has made, as all the returns keep coming in. those numbers keep slipping. now it is very dead heat, you can really say. everyone we talked to say they are optimistic this is going to come out because in the end, the democratic strong hold of fairfax county and some of the other areas, alexandria still have not reported in yet. they are confident once they do, that will push tim kaine over the top. that's the latest from here. back to you. >> thank you. we knew it would be close, and it is.

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♪ wow. delicious, right? yeah. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... ♪ well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. >> back now to this all important ballot questions in maryland. >> the first, question six, whether to legalize same-sex marriage. 32% reporting. right now we have 51% for, 49% against. this is a very tight race. >> the other question seven expanded gambling of maryland and the construction of the casino in prince georges county, with 41 pnts reporting, 53% for and against 47% right now. so now we will have crews all over the area and over the country as well to keep you up to date on this election night. >> we will be back a few minutes before the top of the hour with an expanded edition of abc 7 news at 11.

there's much more on the local races on wjla.com. we will see you in 25 minutes. ♪ >> announcer: from times square in new york city, this is election night 2012. once again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and it is great to have all of you back with us on this election night. election headquarters right here in times square. and as we know, we are waiting only for five more states for the polls to close in five more states. and we have a projection to give you right now. which affects this race a lot. it is wisconsin. coming in, part of the midwest firewall, as we know, for president obama. and we project he has won

wisconsin, of course, his vice presidential candidate paul ryan's home state. i want to go straight to george stephanopoulos right now. george, is there a chance that lightning could strike? are they hoping for that in the romney camp and how would it happen? >> it would have to strike in ohio, it would have to strike very hard. president obama's midwest firewall, as you said, it's holding. he's winning wisconsin, the home state of congressman paul ryan. he's also won new hampshire. a key battleground state. i want to show everybody what has happened. that means if you add those two states that the democrats have won in the last several elections that gets president obama to 251 votes of the electoral votes. if you add that in with ohio, that gives him 269. look at the states he has to choose from to get the electoral vote. nevada, in with 70% in. iowa, a lot of early vote in.

colorado where he's tied. florida with 80% in, president obama is still ahead. i want to bring that to jon karl. because when you look at these big states like virginia and florida, which mitt romney must win, there are still a lot of democratic votes to come in. >> that's right. especially when you look at florida, you drill down to the biggest democratic state of florida. this is miami-dade. look, only about two-thirds of the vote has been counted in miami-dade county. that means a lot of barack obama votes are yet to be counted in florida. and when you go up to the state of virginia, same thing. northern virginia is the stronghold for democrats. fairfax county, one of the biggest, you know, strongest counties for barack obama. and you look, only 29% of the precincts are reporting. there are a lot of obama votes yet to be counted in virginia. >> okay. >> and we have the mayor of chicago standing by, rahm emanuel right now, bringing him

in. he's smiling. he is smiling big. so, tell us -- >> i haven't smiled in a week. >> you've talked to the president. and you're on the tarmac to meet him when he landed in chicago. tell us what they're saying inside -- inside his room where the family's gathered? >> well, first of all i haven't are talked to him, you know, since last night. i haven't talked to him tonight. but i think from the campaign's perspective, obviously, as you guys have just mentioned now that wisconsin is there, as you look at ohio there, and that firewall, there are places that he's done better in this election than he did in 2008. and for everybody who predicted there was a falloff of energy for democrats, you're just not seeing that. this is as exciting as it was for democrats in 2008. the president's ran a clear campaign. you know, obviously, flororida' not in yet. and there are places in florida

where democrats are doing better and stronger than they were in 2008. and that says something about the coalition the president put together, built also for this election. and the clear choice he presents to the voters. and the good news for governing, from the perspective of a mayor, former chief of staff, this was a clear choice. there wasn't a lot of muddle. if the president wins, obviously, i'd rather be looking at the map today. it's clear that he has the energy to go forward, the policy he's laid in front of the country because they could not be starker about the different directions they wanted to take the country. if he wins, he's ready to take the goal to find that common ground. we have a lot to go tonight. iowa's not done. ohio's not done. you just put up the maps. but given where things are trending, it's obviously a better night for the president as we like to say in chicago, it will be a sweet home, chicago. >> are you ready to call it?

>> nope. i'll leave that to you, george, i'm just ready to party when you do. >> what's the biggest thing, when you look at that map tonight, where do you think president obama's going to surprise people tonight? >> well i think the two things that you look at -- a couple things. one, everybody's talked about the president's kind of heavy african-american, heavy hispanic vote. every women, american coalition. iowa is older. iowa does not have a big minority population, heavily white. and yet he's going to win it, or looks like he's going to win it. that's something that people have to look outside the norm if he wins this. if he wins in ohio, i think what has to be looked at, the president's decision when it turned to be unpopular on the auto industry, and mitt romney policy was very costly and very strong for the country. and i think if they does win

florida, things like on medicare, in the exit polls, people trust him more on medicare. if we're going to strengthen medicare, it has to be done with the basic tenet of medicare. >> thanks a lot for coming on, mayor. we'll talk to you soon. we want to go back to florida, 89% of the precincts reporting. 50% to 49% for president obama. more than a 50,000 vote lead. mayor mentioned iowa. let's look at what's going on in the state of iowa that's a key battleground important to president obama's electoral firewall. with 26% of the vote in so far. 59% for president obama. 40% for governor romney. and ron brownstein, so much of that vote came in early. >> yeah, absolutely. you know, if you can bank -- bring iowa and the data along, as well as ohio, you're there. because with wisconsin, we passed an historic milestone. there are now 18 states that

voted democratic in each of the last elections which is the most states they've won that often ever, since the formation of the modern party system. and, george, it's the reversal of the dynamic when you and i first started covering politics in the 1980s when republicans had the advantage in the electoral college. and democrat has to thread the needle. as long as has they had that solidly in their control, every republican nominee had to basically thread the needle to get to 270. and none have fallen in this election. >> i want to go back to matt dowd. we had ed gillespie talking about winning independent voters. but as you said all along, there are actually very few independent voters. paint a portrait of who we're seeing emerge about who is an independent voter in this country. what does it say about a m moderate reporter in this country. >> well, is this something that began to emerge in the bush 2004

race which is the reason why when doing that race we did what we did in motivation in turnout. what happens is people find the color of the jersey and this country is getting more and more polarized. independents, while people call themselves independents, they perform as a partisan. you can no longer base your profession on what you think an independent is based on what it is in the past. >> i wonder, gary langer, i know you're there in the back. i wonder if you can tell us what you've seen so far in the exit polls that gives any clues as to how the independents are breaking tonight. >> yeah, let me pull it up for you, george. independents in our current data are splitting very evenly between the two candidates. 45% to 49% contest. but what's helping barack obama, more democrats are showing up than are republicans. not by as wide a margin as we saw four years ago. but by enough of a margin to keep it a very close race. >> we're going to see these

tectonic shifts. we may have to redefine all of our terms after this map. >> with wisconsin, i think this say huge sign about this evening tonight. we've seen new hampshire, we've seen other states. but wisconsin, paul ryan was picked by mitt romney not only was he going to talk about big ideas which never seemed to happen in this race. they traded rob portman who they considered, a senator from ohio, and they picked paul ryan. they've lost wisconsin. if they end up losing ohio, there is going to be speculation that they picked the wrong guy to win the wrong state. >> george will? >> every year, we have a big argument about whether or not he can cleaverly clear his state. this is the 17th election sinced second world war, 11 of them, a running mate has failed to carry the state. and you go back to something ron said a moment ago about threading the needle george

herbert walker bush was the last republican to get over 300 electoral votes. since then, height was his son, in 2004, 386 -- >> 286. >> sorry? >> 286. >> sorry, 286 is the best a republican has done. >> jake is a human google over here. >> but 58% of the popular vote. >> okay. i want to talk about another gap because we haven't really explored it in depth. come in, cokie, and tell us about the gender gap. >> well, we are seeing it. you know, we've seen it in every election since 19 yoo80. in our national polls now, we are seeing the president doing better among women, as we always have are seen him do. it is not what he was doing in 2008. >> 13 points. >> 13 points. but it does look like it's about 11 points or so. so he has -- he has definitely

improved that. in the same way as independents. what we were seeing in the pre-election polls going into today was romney doing much better among independents than he seems to be doing among people coming out of the polls. and the same thing is true among women. and in some states we're seeing a very big gender gap. iowa coming up is one of them. >> and i want to go back to the map one more time because the vote continues to come in in florida. we're now up to 88%. 88% of precincts reporting in florida right now. president obama, 50%, holding on to that, 50% to 49% lead. nicolle wallace, it's over 100,000 votes. >> i'm still hearing from my friends in florida during my time with jeb bush, they're saying we underestimated president obama on the ground game. i think that's one of the biggest stories of the night. they didn't rest on their laurels of four years ago. they've exceeded what they had

built. exceeded that infrastructure. and we're seeing results of that. >> donna brazil, we're seeing in over the weekend. >> and the lines are still long, george. i'm telling people to stay in line, we're bringing coffee and doughnuts and some hats. it's very important that people stay in line. if i can get that delivered. i haven't found anybody. the obama campaign invested in two things. one targeted undecided voters. and secondly, they expand the electorate. those two things helped them. there were a lot of people who did not vote in 2010. the obama campaign targeted those voters so they had a good ground game and they expanded on it. >> anecdotally, we were hearing a lot about people at the polls problems at the problems. i want to check in with pierre thomas. pierre, are you hearing anything now at the level of more lawsuits, more concern out there? >> diane, the news so far tonight is that -- other than

long lines, it's going pretty well. the campaigns are not reporting that any litigation as far as we can see it. and i guess right now, the major issue is, again, there are 10,000 lawyers and election watchers out there ready to pounce if anything goes wrong. but so far, it's good for the democracy, no major problems. >> by the way, we heard that foreign observers are coming in 2000, europeans with the american polls which seems ironic. >> to verify that gap, 16,000 between the president and mitt romney. still 50% to 49%. >> okay. and i just want to go one by one, if i can, to each of you. because at this point, at this crucial point, this is heading towards the election of a president here, one way or the other. tell us the thing you're seeing we've got to watch that we're not paying attention to. matt dowd? >> well, i want to reflect back

on what we talked about earlier in the evening which is the divided nature of this country. and the changing nature of this country. right now, mitt romney, there's more conservatives voting than in 2004 when the last republican won. the romney is doing as well among akconservatives. he's doing better than bush did. among white males and women. right now, he's not performing in the states because the country has changed. the country is less white, younger and much different than eight years ago. >> i want to go to ron brownstein. you made a proclamation which i read. and you said that it will be the last attempt to squeeze out a national majority from the white vote in this country. the last attempt by the republican party? >> win or lose, i think people inside the romney campaign understood that they're in a position that they could run as

well among white voters as any republican challenger ever, eisenhower in '82, reagan and bush in '88, and still lose. the president's math was pretty sample, he had to win 80% of the minority vote, 46 of the majority vote. he is right at that line today. some of these sunbelt states where the big minority growth has been, he is surviving even weaker numbers than that among white. if you can win florida at 38% of white, it's a pretty ominous message for the republican party. >> and rerejoined there, george will? >> making projections about the continuing growth of various sections of the electorate, the following calculation comes up. if in 2020, the republican nominee gets john mccain's portion, the asian-american and hispanic vote he will lose by

14,000 unpopular votes. >> we just learned that jesse jackson jr. of illinois has actually been re-elected despite spending the last several months in the mayo clinic. >> that's solidly democratic. but jesse jackson jr. who has won re-election in illinois has not been seen in congress since early this summer. i mean, he left for health reasons. he has not campaigned at all. and as you see, solid lead, democratic district, re-electing a democratic congressman that has been missing in action for almost half a year. >> so many of those congressional seats are so safe. >> i want to go back out and see if we can put upside by side, jake tapper and david muir. i think it's interesting to be in each of those rooms right now. feeling the mood of the room. jake tapper, if you can hear me right now, i have a question i

wanted to ask. at one point, president obama's campaign but an exclamation point after "forward." it was just "forward" and then an exclamation point. when did they decide that was the right message for them? >> well, they went back and forth about a lot of different messages. and they ultimately decided "forward." and then there was some criticism that "forward" with a period was not really conveying the kind of "forward" that they wanted. so the exclamation point was added. i should say that we're having somewhat of an exclamation point here this evening. the crowd is jubil lent. 22-year-olds screaming. senior staffers being cautious. poring over data. and those in the senate re-elected, claire mccaskill and as david axelrod betting his

famous mustache. so big cheers when axelrod's 'stache was saved, diane. >> let's go to david muir. >> you're talking about "forward" with the exclamation point. those slogans carried the campaign. for mitt romney, you can't help but notice on the podium it would say "real change." his argument was i'll be the real change, obviously, it was the talk of hope and change four years ago. but if you elect me on day one, i'll begin to reach across the aisle. that was the other half of the closing argument, that he would be the one to strike up a bipartisan tone in washington. the challenge of that message, though, just as they began to deliver it, you saw hurricane sandy and that powerful image that was much talked about at least in the political world.

president obama, of course, going to the storm zone and standing side by side by governor chris christie. chris christie applauding him. and of course, it takes on a life of its own on "saturday night live" and what have you. i did ask the senator overnight on the plane, i said, if romney does not win this election, will there be talk about the pause button that hurricane sandy might have caused, the stop in any kind of momentum that mitt romney might have are still had from that first key debate? and he told me, this election is bigger than that chris christie moment. he said the american people are smarter than that. i got to tell you, i can't imagine it not coming up in the conversation if this evening ends with the re-election of the president. >> right now, we want to talk about the projection for arizona. >> that means the electoral votes in so far, very, very

close. 171 for governor romney. 173 for president obama, but of course, so many big states to come in, ohio, virginia, florida, north carolina, all that when we come back. vote 2012 continues. >> announcer: multitouch screen, courtesy, microsoft. >> announcer: multitouch screen, everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him

when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world.

we are making sure that our americaned armed services are strong because the best way to preserve the peace is through strength. we also call for unleashing america's plentiful american energy resources for more jobs, for more opportunity, greater national security. all revenues to the government, from our homes to the coast of virginia. they're willing and able to provide america with the energy to puer with our economy. we spoke to renew our historic commitment to individual freedom, personal responsibility and opportunity for every american to succeed. i remember hearing from so many virginians in so many ways, small business men in bedford

county where he said i want the government the get off my back and out of my pockets. [ applause ] those ideals are enough for me. but we all hope that we must prevail as a nation as a whole with these ideas. it may not be next week. may not even be next year. but these ideals, these principles must prevail because they are the fundamental principles of our commonwealth of virginia and america. these ideals and these principles are our hope for the future. and i pledge my best efforts as a private citizen to promote these positive ideas as i vote to keep advocating for all of these principles and ideals that

we all believe in. folks, it has been a long, difficult campaign. it's also been a yoiful one. for susan and for me. i also think for our children. thank you all. thank you all. [ applause ] i have met so many generous people from all walks of life. >> we've been listening there to a concession speech made by george allen in the senate race in virginia which is something we've been keeping our eyes on. >> we're going to have more on the situation there. of course an even bigger race that all eyes in the country are watching. >> that's right. the two men running for president. we're just a few minutes away from the 11:00 hour. here's the obama headquarters in chicago. supporters hoping for four more years. >> the supporters are hoping for

a very different outcome here in boston. take a look at the video from there. that's where the romney camp has its base. but their campaign suffered key losses in pennsylvania and wisconsin and still faces an uphill battle this hour. >> good evening everyone and welcome to our abc 7 coverage of this election night 2012. i'm leon harris. >> i'm allison starling. thank you for joining us. we are just a few minutes away from 11:00 on the east coast. we expect all these numbers to continue changing in the race for president. >> here are the latest numbers on a national scale. here's the race for president so far as we expected a tight race now. the popular vote here, mitt romney, 50% and barack obama at 48%. with 48% of the precincts reporting. now, in the race for president in fairfax county, let's take a closer look at what's happened here. mitt romney now holding a slim one percentage point lead over barack obama.

but that's with 80% of the precincts reporting. that's quite a substantial number. we'll keep our eyes on that one. we all have numbers coming in from fairfax county as you see here now, president obama now holding a substantial lead at 58% to 41% with 63% of the precincts there reporting. >> another county that we've talked so much about in this race is loudoun county. we already have 98% reporting. obama 51%, romney 47%. that was for loudoun county. after loudoun county, want to take a look here at prince william county. that's the other bell weather we've been talking about. a tie with 52% reporting from prince william. >> with those two different counties there, really, that could tell a lot about what could happen in virginia. now let's look at the race for senate in virginia. >> we've been talking about this. we just heard from george allen.

he's at 49% and tim kaine 51% and we have 88% of the precincts reporting for the u.s. senate race. >> all right. let's move on across the river into maryland and take a look at the big questions that have been on the ballot there. starting with question seven which concerned expanding gambling there and also the construction of the casino in prince georges county. the vote starting to spread out from the last time we checked with 51% of the precincts voting. 52% for and against 48%. >> also in maryland, the other big question everyone's talking about, question six, same-sex marriage. all 54% reporting, we have 51% for same-second marriage and 49% voting against with 54% again reporting. >> okay. that's what the numbers look like right now. let's look at what they might mean. >> well, clearly, virginia's

still in play and with the tim kaine victory, you can believe that perhaps obama's gonna pull this off. this county has picked the state wide winner for the last ten years. loudoun is the bell weather. right now obama is not leading by a large percentage as he did four years ago, but we'll see. look at the senate. tim kaine wins. joe donnelly wins in indiana. and thomas meskaskel retains the lead in missouri. what were the issues. elizabeth warren defeats the incumbent who took the so called ted kennedy seat in massachusetts after the special election after senator kennedy died. >> and, gordon, we just got word that north carolina is going to

mitt romney. >> that's a surprise at this point. as you said a few minutes ago, looks like it's an uphill battle now for mitt romney in ohio. if obama wins ohio. but, look, won michigan, minnesota, wisconsin, possibly virginia. and florida's still in play. >> big questions about states in the west. colorado, nevada. >> but, he was -- obama was treading ahead in nevada and colorado for the past several weeks, so we'll see. when the polls will be closing out there. >> should be closing within just a matter of seconds. >> so we should be getting those results pretty soon, or at least some indication of where we're gonna go. but, you know, i wouldn't want to call it for anybody right now, but i would say the senate races, especially the senate

races in virginia, would be a positive indicator for obama unless there's some tickets out there. obviously, there are no ticket splitters in massachusetts where obama won handedly. that's mitt romney's home state. >> very interesting. >> don't go away. we'll be back with you in just a second. thanks, gordon. >> folks, you stay where you are now. abc 7 at 11:00 starts right now. >> what's breaking right now is word that the polls have closed on the west coast and we're waiting to see what the impact will be on the national figures in the race for president. california, washington, hawaii have gone for obama, idahoor romney. no big surprises there for people. as you see there with the big vote, the national vote here, mitt romney still showing up here at 2 percentage points

ahead of barack obama. right now the eyes of the obama and romney campaigns are watching the fates of their campaigns and the future of the nation, all coming in as each return comes in. abc 7 is your election station tonight. senior political reporter is live at the obama campaign. he's in chicago. let's check in with him. >> we have a long and uncertain night but don't tell that to the cheerers here at obama head quarters in chicago. they are very upbeat as they watch the results come in. particularly when they have seen the numbers come in in pennsylvania, from wisconsin, from new hampshire. they believe that gives them a clear path. they also say senior staff that i talked to early tonight that they read the tea leaves yesterday when they saw mitt romney in ohio. they say that was, quote, a hail mary of desperation. you could argue the same case against the president when he went to iowa begging for its electoral votes. nonetheless they now feel like

they are in the driver's seat. the president has the day to his own. he played basketball. he just had dinner with his family. we understand right now he's at the fairmont hotel thanking his senior staff and very soon will arrive here in downtown chicago where he hopes to be delivering a victory speech. time will tell. live in chicago, scott thuman, abc 7 news. >> let's turn to the romney campaign. stationed in boston, massachusetts. that's where rebecca cooper is live with the latest. rebecca? >> there were many states they knew they needed to win. states where they were even hoping to pull off some upsets

like pennsylvania. mitt romney ended his campaign in pittsburgh today. they were hoping they might be able to pull off a surprise and take pennsylvania. they did not. some of those other swing states where he's been campaigning hard like ohio right now they don't see that as promising. in florida, obama still holding a slight lead. let's take a look at our own state of virginia because we know just how important that's been for the romney campaign. let's look at places where the romney campaign officials say they do feel like they are seeing signs of hope. places like in chesapeake, where they point out that barack obama won that area by two points last time around. they picked up chesapeake by about 12 points. another area, the 9th district. mccain won it last time, but with low turnout. this time they're seeing huge turnout. that's going well for mitt romney. but they know those returns are still coming in for areas like norfolk. one thing they're holding on

hope to in virginia, they believe they're winning independents there by a 2:1 margin. we'll have to see what happens in the commonwealth. reporting live from boston, rebecca cooper, abc 7 news. >> thank you. we've been talking about battleground virginia for month now. it has been a key state in this race. let's look at how the numbers have broken down. we have 88% reporting in the president's race in virginia. 50% for mitt romney, 49% for barack obama. >> taking a deeper look inside the numbers. let's look at what we've been talking about as the two key bell weathers. loudoun county, that number there, 98% of precincts reporting. you're seeing here president obama has opened up a lead there of 51% to 47%. now, that we have seen early this evening, loudoun county leaning to president obama. and prince william had been leaning toward romney. with 52% of the precincts

reporting there, we're seeing that race now dead even. so we still have lots more to see what happens there. >> also, if we move on from prince william county, here we have fairfax county. take a look at these numbers. 63 reporting from fairfax. president obama with 58% and mitt romney with 41%. >> let's talk more about these numbers. we're joined here on the set by gordon peterson and john harris. john, let's give you a chance to weigh in. your thoughts on what we've seen so far. >> virginia. absolutely. you talked already in the broadcast, the national trend would require really mitt romney walking a very narrow unlikely path for him to come out ahead in this presidential election. there is no path, period, if he doesn't win virginia. we see how close iis.

we see virginia moving toward obama. >> richmond area important? >> i think we're especially watching it. gordon, where i have seen -- at least where i checked, the uncounted vote was more up here in the big local. >> is that the reason you think george allen made his concession speech in people are still in line waiting to vote? >> i think that's right. although the actual vote totals, tight as a drum, you could see the vote that was not counted was not likely to go to him. it was heavily democratic. >> exit polls, romney doing better on all the voters rights, voters who think the economy is not so good, 6 in 10 voters under 30 backing obama, 6 in 10 65 or over supporting romney. >> virginia is almost a national

state. regional southern state. get a lot of transients here. >> as you were talking here, we are looking at live pictures from tim kaine's headquarters. >> put that shot back up again. >> he hasn't spoken yet, obviously, but we understand he is about to any minute. >> if romney were to win in virginia, means there wilbe a lot of ticket splitters out there. >> we've been expecting that in this race. the fact that however the presidential race turns out, that's a big deal. there was some thought in 2008 when barack obama won the first time for the democrat, well, this was a fluke. that was history in the making. virginia is still a fundamentally conservative state. now, it's not. it's a swing state. we now know that. >> except in 2010 when we elected a democratic governor.

>> it's intensely competitive. >> listen, if -- and there's some indication about the national election. will this move the republicans to move to the center or furtherer to the right? >> i think there's going to be a big rift and bitter debate within the republican party. i think we're going to have a lot of people in the republican establishment that says it shouldn't be a debate. we know why we lost. look at some of these senate races. republicans lost indiana, a democrat won missouri. same thing. you've got seats that are clearly winnable that are not won because they've got candidates who are seen as out of the main stream, too conservative, even for conservative states. they're going to say we need more moderate candidates. >> john, thank you very much. gordon, thanks. >> we move on now to the big races in maryland, in particular three key ballot referendums in play there. let's take a look at question

seven, the gambling issue. got a lot of people in maryland worked up. you see here 58% of the precincts reporting. votes for expanded gambling in maryland, they have gone to 52%. folks against it stand now at 48%. now, the other issue on the ballot there ha has also been a big talker has been the same-sex marriage question, which is question six. as you see here, the votes for that now with 51% of the precincts reporting stand at 51% and the votes against it at 49%. so still a very close margin there. we have been covering that in baltimore. let's check in with him now and get the latest on these issues. >> leon, it's very loud, very happy party here. they're most happy. you can see by the signs here, tim kaine for the united states senate. they're so happy. they dominated.

in fact, they were so confident that in recent weeks, recent days, they had turned the focus away from these races to virginia to try to help deliver the democratic vote in virginia. you talked about the questions, the big questions, the dream act. talked about a very big number. looked like the dream act was winning. the marriage protection act. just barely, a 30,000 vote margin. looks like it's leading. the big casino act as well. about a 50,000 vote margin. so those who voted for question seven. going to be a long time though before that is done here tonight. the individuals who won their

election tonight, we'll see what will happen with these questions. back to you. >> good deal. thank you, brad. now let's take a look at question seven. now let's look at what's happening in the george allen camp. >> let's go from maryland over to virginia and talk about this senate race that we've been watching so closely. let's check in at george allen's campaign headquarters. jeff goldberg is live with the latest. jeff, he made his concession speech. >> he did. this was the surprising turn of events about ten minutes ago, george allen and his family announcing he had called governor tim kaine and conceded victory, conceded this race to tim kaine. it was an audible gp in the room. a lot of people surprised that this announcement came so soon, considering the numbers were so tight in this race. i spoke with some folks after the announcement was made. they said they were disappointed. felt like he conceded maybe a little bit too early. again, george allen said the numbers were clear that he was

not going to win this race. he said our ideals did not succeed, but if america is to have a come back, these ideals and principles must prevail. he got a warm response from the crowd. the question now, what happens next with george allen? he lost his senate seat in 2006. tried to reclaim it. unsuccessful against tim kaine. this race could go a long way in maintaining the narrow majority for democrats in the united states senate. we're going to have to see where this goes next. lot of disappointed republicans here in richmond. live in richmond, jeff goldberg, news channel 8. >> okay. thank you, jeff. >> let's hear now from tim kaine. i understand he's at the podium as we speak.

[ applause ] [ applause ] >> wow what, a crowd! thank you all so much! so much. it is a -- it is a great night to be a virginian!

[ cheers and applause ] >> in 2008 -- [ crowd chanting tim kaine ] >> thank you. what a great crowd. you know, in 2008, virginia made the wonderful history by sending a fiscally responsible former governor to the united states senate and helping to put barack obama in the white house. [ applause ] well, the night is still young, but thanks to you, we're already halfway there to doing it again tonight. [ applause ]

actually, we're more than halfway there. nbc just called the presidential race. [ applause ] [ applause ] >> thanks for sending a note up.

[ applause ] so we still, i guess, i guess have a little bit to find out about how the virginia number goes, but nbc just called the nation for president obama. so, thank you, virginia! [ applause ] you guys, thank you so much. [ applause ] >> four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! >> well, this is a big, big day. you know, this road, this road,

on this campaign started 19 months ago, 581 days ago, when i kicked off the campaign for senate from the steps of my back porch just a few miles from here. over 19 months we traveled more than 60,000 miles. we were joined by an unprecedented 50,000 grass root supporters. [ applause ] and even though we faced more negative ads from secretly funded outside groups than any other campaign in the country, except the president. [ applause ] we were able to overcome the influence of the negative ads and prove once again the strength of people power and grass roots campaigning! [ applause ]

and so here's what it means, folks. here's what it means. our victory tonight proves that it's the number of people who stand with you, not the number of zeros behind the check! [ applause ] that's what decides elections in the united states of america! and tonight -- and tonight, we also proved -- we all proved that virginians are ready to keep moving forward with leaders committing to finding common ground to help strengthen the middle class and the entire nation. [ applause ] let me just take a moment to recognize my opponent, george allen. i want to thank him for his years, more than 20 plus years of elected service to virginia.

>> there you see tim kaine's headquarters, senator-elect tim kaine. also making an announcement this evening about the presidential race as well. >> we just learned from the ap that they have called ohio for obama. so now we are going to send our coverage back to abc news and we'll be back with you shortly. began more than four years ago with that stunning win in the iowa caucus in january 2008 against hillary clinton, surprised the world there. he came back on his last rally of his last campaign and shed a tear last night as he was speaking to the people of iowa and iowa has come through for him and if you look at that right now, with new hampshire and wisconsin and iowa -- want to put up this possibility board right now that shows that president obama has 257 electoral votes. he is closing in on that 270. ohio would put him well over the top but at this point he doesn't even necessarily need ohio.

he could get there with a combination of two small states in the west, nevada and colorado would put him at 272 so he has two distinct paths right now to 270 electoral votes, something that mitt romney does not have right now, matt dowd. >> absolutely true. he can lose ohio, virginia and florida and still win by carrying colorado and nevada and that's the situation. they've been in this situation for weeks and now unfolding tonight just as i say as if the obama campaign had said they thought it would. they said they thought it would unfold this way, preserve the midwest, still win ohio and the biggest county out still only 20% of this county is in, cuyahoga county, only 20% in, that's cleveland and that gave barack obama a margin of 300,000 votes in that one county and that county is still 80% out. >> donna brazile, let's talk about iowa a little bit because that is where we first saw the power of this barack obama ground game.

>> i'll never forget that. january 3rd, clinton and by the way we haven't mentioned bill clinton tonight. when i look at this map tonight, pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, bill clinton did a phenomenal job campaigning across the country, side by side with president obama, clearly some of the clinton effect really helped president obama tonight especially on the ground game. president obama has some of the -- i would like to say the best in the business. they know how to target. they know how to expand their the electoral. the romney campaign careerly underestimated the obama campaign ability to use analytics, social media to target these new voters and get out the people who came out in historic numbers in 2008. >> and, george will, we see this right now. what do you think republicans can learn from what we're seeing on the board as it builds up tonight? >> well, there are accelerating demographic changes. this election was romney's

economics against obama's demographics and demographics is just slaughtering economics so far tonight and unless the economic -- the demographics change in the country accommodated by the republican party and they'll get a big challenge because if the president is re-elected and if he's as clever as i suspect he is, he will bring immigration reform front and center to -- >> he vowed to do it. >> to give the republicans a refund to redirect themselves if they're not very careful. >> all right, donna brazile, is hillary clinton going to run? you were talking about over president clinton out there campaigning. >> i'm looking at 100 precincts are still in -- i'm still trying to make sure people vote. >> trying to order pizza for everybody in line there. >> fairfax county near and dear to my heart, 100 precincts are still out. look, it's true, we talk about 2016, so many talented people including the vice president of the united states, had to mention joe biden's name

otherwise i have a 3:00 a.m. phone call but we'll see. right now we have four more years hopefully of president obama and a role that helped grow the economy and keep us safe and strong. >> you wanted in on this, barbara. >> i do because i have heard president clinton talking about his wife and encouraging her to run in four years. she says as we have heard i am tired. i need time off. he said to friends and she's worried about being too old. she said she's going to be 69. he said, that's young. he keeps telling her that's young, that's young so he i think will push her to run and she will say, let me just take a nap. look ahead. if it were up to the president, his wife would be running. >> all right. barbara, we'll take a pause right now. we want to let the rest of the stations across this country join us, because we think we may have some big projections coming up and we want to make sure that everybody in the country is here

with us. >> announcer: this is an abc news special report. "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. here again diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and here we mark the time. here we are, ohio is in. we are projecting the battleground state of ohio for president barack obama which means you are looking at the president of the united states. barack obama has been re-elected. the 44th president. listen to the crowd out in times square. the man who came in promising the audacity four years ago will now have a chance to promise possibilities.

a new future for the next four years coming up, george. >> another chapter in an improbable journey. it is well to remember right now that just ten years ago barack obama was a state senator in illinois. now he is a re-elected president of the united states. a very different campaign from four years ago. four years ago he rode away into office and this time running for re-election, he had to try to beat away back a wave of economic discontent. he did it with a campaign that was brutal on mitt romney, but also brilliant in terms of turning out the vote, matthew dowd, a huge victory. ♪ now that i can dance >> the economy has suffered. he had a number that he thought -- both sides will have to reflect on this because there's many misconceptions and problems that happen but i think the republicans are really -- the polls were right. all the polls were right.

the republicans argued against and said, no, no, no, we'll do it differently. compose a different electorate. it didn't happen and they'll have to face a future where there's no leader of the party in an electorate that's much to their disadvantage. >> he always said he was a fourth quarter closer. that he was lebron at the very end but i want to bring in nicolle right now for your thoughts. >> well, look, i think this was a campaign that has always had its doubters. i mean, this was a primary where he was sort of the third, fourth, fifth choice. we romanced chris christie, we romanced mitch daniels and fell in love with everybody that wasn't running in the party and carried over. he never was able to get the monkey off his back. we never stopped doubting him and i think that hurt him and i think until his own stellar performance in the first debate we really didn't believe in him and i think that took its toll on mitt romney. >> donna, quick thought. >> four years ago voters wanted to make history. this time around they wanted to

make a difference. they wanted to make a difference in terms of somebody who they thought was on their side to create jobs, somebody -- health care, keep the country safe and sound. this is amazing. this is tough. i have to tell you, but it feels good. >> george will, there was a moment after that first debate where it looked like the president would not be re-elected but as diane pointed out he closed with a kick. >> he did close with a kick and both sides fought a gallant fight and mitt romney had a problem that i think, nicolle, you were talking about. during the republican nominating process, the party turned first to one person then for to try and avoid what turned out to be inevitable. if there's a winner tonight, it's the senator from florida, marco rubio because all eyes will be turned to him as a man who might have a way to get up the demographic of this party. >> you talked so much about being there with those who have lost and the first thought they have when they know it's over. >> well, i just want to say

something about obama, because the second term for many, many presidents who won a second term was not good. very often in the second term whether it was bill clinton or even ronald reagan, the second term -- >> richard nixon. >> richard nixon, the second term starts out happy and goes downhill so he now really has to prove himself in every respect and we've been watching the two children and it's going to be, you know, going off to college and be more involved in what they're doing now but the biggest thing he has to do, of course, is to practice what he has been preaching, now he really has to get those jobs. >> want to go to jake tapper in a moment but first, david muir, at romney headquarters. >> reporter: well, i can tell you, george, a tough room to be in. you can see the crowd behind me,

they are trained on the big monitors in the front of the room that have been watching the cables and switching back between the major networks with the announcement that barack obama has been re-elected. i was talking to a couple of voters who are gathered supporters and one woman said, i'm shocked. we have to do something about the deficit, the debt. my children will pay for this. so i think from this room and from, you know, a good part of this country, that was supporting mitt romney's effort to become president, there's going to have to be a message from this president-elect in a second term about what he'll do to rein in the spending and to address the deficit and some of these issues that mitt romney championed in his year 1/2 run. really as you know, george and diane he's been running for six years or so. it's been a long time in coming to get his name on that ballot. he said he was humbled to see it there this morning and he was asked by all of us here in the press earlier today had he thought about what it would be like not to win this race what he would do and quite honestly he said he only prepared a

speech for a victory. he said i haven't thought about it but i do have a life that's very important to me and i have a family. that's a message he has said along the way regardless of whether he wins he'll be okay but the fact goes out to the issues and causes they believed in in selecting paul ryan and his tough talk on debt and spending in washington and i think the supporters of the romney/ryan campaign will expect to hear from this president what he's going to do to try to now bring this nation together, george and diane. >> we can see the tears all around you there, david. i want to head over to president obama's headquarters, jake tapper, we have a twist, jake. i'm sure you know about this too, we're all in this together, that's how we campaigned and that's who we are, thank you, barack obama. >> reporter: that's right, in fact, well, normally where a president is accepting a victory such as this, with a big speech, we first got indication that president obama was declaring

victory by a tweet, a picture of him and michelle obama hugging saying four more years and then again this personal tweet signed by the president saying as you say "we're all in this together. that's how we campaigned and that's who we are. thank you, signed b.o., barack obama, it is electric here at campaign headquarters in chicago. they are crying tears but different from the tears of the romney tears hq. people hugging each other, very excited. there was a lot of concern that the economic problems that the country was having and the difficulties president obama was having with certain demographic groups was going to mean this would be a very long night. it turns out not so long after all. this is the third president in a row who has been re-elected and he did it using the same strategy of the previous president, george w. bush, the president who he blames for so many of the troubles that still are a problem for him today, problems for the american people today, he had a -- george w.

bush fought for re-election even though the public was ambivalent about him because of the war in iraq. he did it by making the alternative unacceptable. that's what he did to john kerry and george w. bush did to john kerry and exactly what president obama did to another patrician massachusetts politician, mitt romney, making him an unacceptable alternative. that, of course, is just the strategy, this is a bigger moment than just political strategy. president obama standing for so many things, for so many people, the demographic groups that supported him, women, minority groups, urban communities, very excited this evening and we'll hear from president obama in a short bit but without question, this was a tougher campaign for president obama than his previous one and i believe he may be the first president in history re-elected with fewer electoral votes than he won the first time he was elected. i'm not positive about but i think that's true. a big, big night for president obama and his team that executed

a very, very determined strategy that was tough, that took away some of the hope and change veneer off his first election but at the end of the day was victorious, diane and george. >> franklin roosevelt, you talk about the communities electric for president obama. one of them right near here in harlem. abc's deborah roberts is there, the same place she was four years ago, another celebration, deborah. >> hey, george, i got to tell you this doesn't even seem like the same room i stepped into five hours ago. when we arrived here people were somber. they were sick to their stomach with worry thinking it would be a very long night. one woman -- with the president feeling disappointed and -- tonight she said it's all a given.

they are here for the president tonight, george. there's one gentleman said to me it's almost like a couple renewing their wedding vows. maybe they're not as giddy as they were on their honeymoon but at the end of the day they can still love each other. i think you see this love is still here for the president. these people are beside themselves. right? >> i love it. loving it. four more years. >> somber, you said. not with what we're seeing. we can barely hear you and let's head out to josh elliott who is out in tes square. josh. >> reporter: a raucous times square, diane, the cheers really gathering and now it is complete pandemonium down here, again, raucous half hour to be sure and we are joined now by a mother and daughter who she said went for the right one registered nurses from iowa. you both voted for the newly re-elected barack obama.

why did he get your vote. >> he got our vote because health care needs a change. we all need good health care. still make it affordable and accessible for us. that's how we keep our costs down is by having healthy citizens. we believe that education is paramount and he has our vote. he looks out for the middle class. that's us. >> reporter: mitt romney had used for years now the term obama care, something of an epithet to attack the president's health care reform. tonight certainly a referendum on many things. do you think it was a referendum on that, if nothing else? >> no, i don't think so. i think that obama has got a plan in mind and that there's nothing wrong with that. he's going to move things around and organize health care in a better way so it's more accessible for everybo

down from 2008 but again those socialists. it is a coalition that continues to allow democrats to overcome in some cases very weak performances. you look at florida and virginia. right in there punching until

the very end. well under 40% of white voters and still for them and just enough of the working class voters in the midwest. >> what does this really say tonight? >> i think we shouldn't take a minute as george was saying to reflect on this story. this is a remarkable american story. the story of quarterback. and what he represents personally, but also the changing america. and i think that's why people getting so excited about them. they recognize themselves in a way that they neverselves in a because it was never there before. now his tweet "we're all in this together" is something he really needs to deliver on, because we have to come out of this election being much more unified

than the way we went into the election and that's going to be very -- >> another reason why this story in addition to the obvious one, this is a president who had high unemployment almost 8%, low approval rating for much of this year, below 50% and where a majority of the country, the majority of the people here throughout the country thought it was going on the wrong track. by any measure you would have thought this was somebody heading for defeat and he warned we've never seen it happen before on any of those three before, marks that low winning re-election in the modern era. >> even as we look at this celebration for barack obama, 51-year-old president, i want to think of someone else, the 65-year-old romney who ran such a long race and, barbara walters, i'm bringing you back because they say adversity introduces us to ourselves.

what is it you know is going on with him tonight? >> i think that his wife is holding his hand and saying, we're okay, we will get through this. she has said and he has said this is the end of the political career. had barack obama lost, he still could have gone on and had a future political career. he also told me that he would like to teach. that he would like to mentor. he's 51 years old. there's a whole future and for the -- for mitt romney this is the end of his political career, he may go into business with one of his sons, one of his sons, he could start another financial hedge fund or whatever it is, but the political career is finished and the only one who may even have a little bit of relief is his wife who said this was a very tough race, that she would never want to go through it again, but you look at this

man now and he's 65 years old. it's the end of his political career and you have to kind of take a little sigh. now, did this happen because of that 47%? well, you know, we'll have to go back to that. was that his bigger mistake or was barack obama too popular. >> you have to support anyone willing to put themselves through this process. to pierre thomas, our justice correspondent and, pierre, reflect on this. president obama was pretty determined not to be defined by his race. that's clear from the very beginning of his first presidential campaign, yet we saw a president completely embraced by the african-american community, who never embraced any candidate before. >> he may not have wanted to be defined by his race but for many african-americans, both on the anecdotal level and on a broader level, we did a piece on "nightline" just last week, we looked at a b.e.t. documentary and one of the things that struck me most about that documentary is that the

african-american relationship with the president is complicated. they were affected by the bad economy just like everybody else. there are issues with the president on gay marriage. but the thing that was really telling this that particular piece is that african-americans felt like the president was disrespected throughout much of his term and what i mean by that, they pointed to the state of the union speech in which the congressman yelled out "you lie." they pointed to the picture of the governor of arizona pointing her finger in his face and said that was not the america they wanted to be and felt very strongly that they should get out and vote and i spoke with gary langer, my colleague a few minutes ago. he said the african-american turnout in 2012 matches that pretty much of 2008. >> looking at this crowd down in times square right now, i'm reading some other tweets coming in. the battle over obama care is now over. you can declare war on women and when? matthew dowd, what do you think? >> i think there's two things

that are fundamental about this race, first, this wasn't -- the problem you have here is not so much about mitt romney, it's about the republican brand and i took a look at the numbers tonight and reached out, george w. bush had run this time and gotten the same margins he had gotten last time, george w. bush would have lost in this race even a candidate popular like he was in 2004 because the nature of the country was changed but one thing i want to say about the president he ran a great race and did a great thing -- he has immense challenges ahead. immense challenges over government but tonight he won an election, the majority, the vast majority of white voters voted against him. majority of older voters voted against him. the majority of people that go to church regularly voted against him. a whole series of voters voted against him. there's huge divides in the country and has not healed them and if he'll have a second term that's going to be successful he has to figure out a way to heal those divides. >> you said there has to be a

peace treaty. >> there's got to be a camp david peace conference that we have within our own country because of these immense divides that exist. >> just want to note almost an after-thought, nevada, we have a projection, nevada has come through for barack obama. go ahead, nicolle. >> i was going to say, in 2004 when george w. bush won, there was a belief and i went into the white house after that campaign and we believed we had a mandate to reform social security reform. we misread our mandate. we misread the results of that 2004 vote. i think that if i could offer any advice and no one from the obama white house is likely to call me for my advice but my advice would be, do not misread a mandate that does not exist for you because half the country, not only did they not vote for you, they distrust you, they distrust you as someone who understands their problems, who has done what they needed you to do which was to solve the economic despair in this

country. >> not only half the country, jonathan karl, but half of caught washington, as well, half of official washington. you have made the point we are coming out of a campaign that probably spent $6 billion in aggregate all to return what looks like the status quo to washington. barack obama to the white house, democrats to the senate. republicans to the house. >> $6 billion campaign that changes virtually nothing. one of the big stories we thought of this election were those huge republican super pacs. they spent republican and republican groups spent over $300 million just on senate races and they have ended up probably losing a net loss of senate losses, come to congress looking almost exactly like it did before this election and i'll tell you, george, this president usually when a president is re-elected you have talks of how much political capital is there, what's the mandate, the second term agenda. a little time to talk about that. he starts tomorrow to face big

problems with this congress, this fiscal cliff, taxmageddon, whatever you want to call it by the end of the year, everybody's taxes go up if he can't get a deal with the congress, the same congress he dealt with last time. >> 56 days for the cliff. jake tapper, what are you hearing about when the president will come out? >> reporter: sometime he is expected sometime in the next half hour, 45 minutes or so but right now the obama campaign is taking a moment, getting its wits about it deciding what to say, how to convey the message and the mood that they want to. remember, president obama came armed with two speeches to tonight. one of them he will not be delivering, that is the concession speech. the other one will be the president reaching out trying to bring the nation together. obviously this was a very hard fought and divisive campaign. we already see some of the results on other news networks, cable networks and on twitter, people not liking the results,

not liking the direction that this nation decided it wanted to keep going. president obama has a tall task. as others have said, in uniting the country, in talking about a way forward, of course, that will prove difficult in the coming weeks because, of course, there are a lot of big legislative issues that the nation is going to have to grapple with, congress and the president, we'll talk about those at another time, i'm sure but right now the white house, president obama, his top aides deciding how to talk to the nation and preparing for it. it should be in the next half hour, 45 minutes, but until then, we have radio silence from the president's top aides. you will not see them speaking to us, speaking to any of our competitors, they want this moment to be the president's. they do not want to have anybody else who was part of the obama campaign team taking any of the president's thunder, diane. >> we could be hearing from mitt romney first. we hear he is heading towards his campaign headquarters where david muir is right now. as you have reported all night long he only prepared one speech, 1100 words, a victory

speech. tonight i suppose we'll see mit romney speak from his heart. >> reporter: from his heart and, george, he'll have to tweak on what he was working on on that ipad on the plane today. i can give you a sense of the room, a swelling crowd at the convention center here in boston. people are holding a small, you know, american flag, ready to greet him. ready to hear what mitt romney, ann romney, the family they have supported will come down and they'll have a united front as this family always does. i have to say there is some question in the room about whether or not the governor is headed down here. those numbers in ohio are so close and there is a thought among some people in here that perhaps they're not absolutely ready to concede. we'll continue to work that out. one of my partners in crime on the trail off-air reporter emily friedman did an amazing job working that part of the story but as you can see here, the crowd is fixed on the screens as they have been for the last half hour. it's very quiet in here. it's been quiet really for most

of the night except for the initial wins and early states, a difficult evening for the people who really thought as this campaign portrayed in the last 24, 48 hours that they really had a shot at winning the presidency tonight, of course, waiting, george, as you say for a speech that will be a little different than what the governor was hoping to deliver here. george, diane? >> and back at the other camp, i keep thinking a lot about sasha and malia, you know, what is it to see your father and there they are at their ages, 11 and 14 now. >> i remember those words that malia said to her father when she went to the lincoln memorial and talked about him being the first african-american president and she said to him "you better do a good job." >> is this some vindication for the president as joe biden said, don't judge me against the almighty, judge me against the alternative. we will pound, pound, pound the

alternative. >> i want to bring that to donna brazile. donna, the president and his team did take a lot of incoming in the early part of the summer when they were running those ads throughout the midwest about governor romney's experience in bain capital. you had president clinton seeming to distance himself from the ads and had newark mayor cory booker doing the same thing, a lot of top business people stayed the course. >> elections are about choices and the obama team understood from the get-go that if the voters were presented two choices, one that was forward looking, was projecting confidence that he could help the economy and the other alternative, somebody with a lousy record as a businessman and they -- and the president's team, i think, took a huge risk in going after mitt romney but remember the republican primary, newt gingrich and rick santorum that gave a lot of ammunition to the obama team when they went

after mr. romney's time at bain capital and the obama team kept that theme going. >> they won, the president won and should be congratulated and the team should be congratulated because they put together a strategy and tactics that won a race that was very difficult to win but i think they're going to be governing and presiding over an incredibly divided country and unless they figure out a way to unify that and deal with that it's going to be very difficult. >> i got to bring this question to george will. correct me if i'm wrong, george. right after president obama was elected four years ago, went to your house, didn't he, for a dinner party reaching out to conservatives, that was supposed to be the promise of his first term, a person who could heal the division in this country. clearly though he's been re-elected not all that healing has happened. what went wrong in that relation between the president and who is to blame and how much on each side. >> books are already being written about what went wrong.

it has something to do with the fact that the stimulus and then the health care bill, two huge pieces of legislation were passed on purely party lines. now, the obama people will say we reached out and couldn't get any takers. the takers on the republican side will disagree with that but while it is true that what was said by the obama campaign about mitt romney merely echoed what was said by gingrich and rick perry and others in that campaign, the president will pay a price for having said it. he got not much of a mandate out of this and the constitutional system does not just permit, it encourages obstruction and i'll read to you once more what i read to you earlier from john boehner, we, meaning his republican caucus in the house, will have as much of a mandate as he will, strife is built into the system." >> so let me go to the other side of the room and all of you talk to people in the obama

camp. has any one of you heard something different that they plan to do, some move they plan to make to change this equation, this paralysis? >> you know, they've won the popular vote five out of six times, three out of four presidential elections that divided the country almost exactly in half which we haven't seen since the late 19th century. the most logical step for them would be to go back to the budget deal. they tried to negotiate it with john boehner in the summer of 2011. it was something that president obama couldn't talk a lot about during the campaign because it was highlighting differences but, in fact, i think you'll see them move to try to do that and the key question will be whether republicans having held on to their majority in the house will be willing to consider a deal that considers higher taxes. >> the polarization question is exacerbated after this election not just because who voted but who was elected. in the senate we have now people

more liberal on the democratic side and more conservative on the republican side than the people they've replaced and we have a house that has incredibly safe seats which is why it hasn't changed over and the reason those seats are so safe is because the districts are drawn so that only that party can get elected and so the only way those members could get in trouble is in their primaries where they get challenged on the right as republicans and on the left of the democrats so compromising is a real danger. >> can i just bring this question to jonathan karl. first i want to say you were talking about legalization of marijuana earlier, the initiative in colorado. it's happened in colorado. >> it happened? >> that's just what i saw. >> we're talking about legalization. >> but on this point we were just talking about right now, everything i could tell from talking to the white house is that they do plan to move quite quickly, perhaps before the end of this week to try to reach a deal on these big economic issues before the end of this year, before the -- what are the

prospects for that in the house and senate? you work with these people every day. >> it's going to be really tough, george. we already have heard from speaker of the house john boehner. remember, he had a big victory tonight too. the republicans held the house and it looks like at most they lost a couple of seats, they kept all of those seats or almost all of them that they won in that wave in 2010 so boehner feels stronger and he's already signaled no tax increases and that's a big part of what president obama will want which is tax increases on the wealth? >> to katie couric, our social media headquarters. >> you know, you talk about polarization, diane, you just need to go on twitter and i'm sure in your account, my account we're hearing lots of pros and cons about the results of this election but you mention a photo that the obama campaign tweeted earlier tonight maybe about a half hour ago. we thought we'd show you that photo right now because it is one of the most retweeted tweets and photos in twitter history.

we thought we'd show you some other things, other comments people are making. this has become sort of the social media/entertainment tonight corner. katy perry tweeted "done and dusted." cher using a younger version of herself on her profile page tweeted "omg, i'm so happy. this is one of the great nights of my life. tears are streaming down my face. women we have a champion." paris jackson said "saying a prayer, thank you, god. and #, don'thavetomovetocanada. >> donald trump, the ever shrinking violet wrote "well, back to the drawing board." this is how celebrities are reacting. >> you got to love, i guess the cele celebro twitter board. >> yep, yep, there you go. >> there's a look at it as we go to a break and we will be back again with so much more as we

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>> announcer: welcome back to nbc news live coverage of election night 2012. we have a winner. barack obama has been re-elected president of the united states. >> we have a winner. it is now 9:00 on the west coast and we are awaiting the president coming out to speak about -- >> he's with the romney campaign. says romney has not called president obama yet but we want to go to jake tapper who is in chicago and the crowd is growing there as well. not quite as big as four years ago, jake, but just as much

excitement. >> reporter: they are, indeed, just as excited although, of course, it's not the same, not the same crowd, it's not al gore's. it's not the same type of moment we experienced four years ago but that's always been the case with the election. -- the president was not drawing the same crowd he drew four years ago but was drawing bigger crowds than his opponent. would have been interested if he ran against him but he wasn't, he was running against mitt romney. victory in a lot of states that were very hard fought. also a victory for polling. for the poll numbers that ultimately proved correct even though there were many, many skeptics on the other side of the aisle saying that the poll numbers were wrong, that the turnout was going to be quite different. it turned out it was as many respected polls said it was going to be but this is a very historic moment, the third president in a row to be

re-elected. the first president in history, i believe, to be re-elected to a second term with fewer electoral votes than he was elected to with the first term, but president obama, of course, going -- tonight he'll talk about the need to unite the country, talking about how he is campaigning. he campaigns the way he will govern with everybody together and we expect him to come on stage after, of course, mitt romney has given his speech. that will come after mitt romney concedes to the president. we all expect that to play out in the next few minutes, george. >> okay, i want to go back to david muir and some of the poll numbers. one of the things governor romney could not shake throughout this campaign was the feeling among plurality of americans, at least, that he favored the wealthy and of those who thought he favored the wealthy they broke 8-1 for the president and this was the toughest night for mitt romney to -- he was in touch with people's economic pain. >> repr:ell

you, george, after this i think there will be a lot of analysis of that caricature fairly or unfairly as a businessman but his tax plan, as you know, there were a lot of questions that went unanswered how he would pay for it, tax cuts across the board including the wealthiest of americans and that was something obama campaign continued to hit him on right up the end and perhaps that will be bo borne out in some polling that many americans didn't understand it or accept the fact he was willing to push through tax cuts for the wealthy. as we wait for governor romney to come into the room, a couple of quick thoughts about the day and a couple things romney said earlier in the day. he was asked when he went into the polling booth and saw his name on the ballot after fighting for so long, six, seven years campaigning to be president he said he was humbled but was asked about his father who was the governor of michigan who ran for president himself about his mother and said i certainly hope that they're able to watch in whatever they can

here tonight. he talked about them. he talked about the president today. he was asked about the president. what have you learned along the campaign trail and he brought up something that he has said before and i'm sure he'll probably say it again tonight that he has great respect for president obama as a father. he did say earlier today that it is time to move forward in the new direction and was hoping that americans would choose him to do that. but i'm suspecting you'll hear him try to strike a different tone here a short time from now in talking about the president that he has described on the trail as a dad that he does respect and about the speech, you know, he has often talked about his speech writers along the way, stu stevens, one of his top strategists who put them together and a lot of talk about it at the republican convention and a couple things left off and critiques that will toed and never put it off on the strategist but always took full credit and full criticism for any of the speeches that he gave along the way and as we saw there in those images there was one key photograph of him on the plane with his ipad in front of

him working on it himself and we talked about how he knew it right down to the number of words, 1,118 or something close to that. the word count on wt he had prepared tonight. i suspect it won't be all that different from what he was going to say but will certainly interest to tweak it and often a more cordial tone to the president which he's gone after for quite some time and expecting in the room -- it's a tough room. you can see on the screen varying networks with the cheers and some of the reports coming in of this spontaneous reaction out in front of the white house. it is not what this room really wants to watch here tonight but they are waiting for governor romney and i guarantee it will be an extraordinary welcome when the governor and his wife, ann romney, who has been his weapon by his side for so many years in these political fights when they enter the room a short time from now. >> david, i know in the land and the great continent of what might have been, i think there's going to be a lot of analysis of

what has been of bain capital and the hurricane and the 47%. did it not go away as it seemed to go away and president obama, by the way, has issued an e-mail to his supporters saying he's about to speak to the crowd in chicago and wanted to thank them. >> to the boards. there are still three states. three big states outstanding. virginia, florida and colorado. i want everybody to take a look at this right now. florida right now, 91% of the vote is in. president obama is ahead. virginia, 87% of the vote is in. president obama is ahead. 50%-49%. colorado, 72% of the vote is in. president obama is ahead. matthew dowd, i want to bring it to you. too early on that but this has more of the makings, if this continues the trend we see, right now of something like another wave right here and the president, if all three of these came in but if all three came in, he would have more than 330

electoral votes right up to the edge of where he was four years ago. >> absolutely and the only -- if that happens and the only states that were give-backs were indiana and north carolina and as we talked about before this and last sunday, george, we talked about this is this is a very, very close race nationally, if you look at the national numbers, i think it's within 0.5% so it's a national vote that's basically tied. who knows? he might end up -- could end up losing the popular vote. but what happens in these races is the dominos fall and as we've looked at this over the last year or so, there is beginning to be an electoral college advantage for the democrats in this. used to be an electoral college advantage for the republicans but as the country shifted and as the country has changed demographically and geographically there is becomen an electoral advantage for the democrats. >> say a good word for the electoral college. doing tonight what it's supposed to do which is magnify the decisiveness of the victory and

it's maligned. incessantly maligned and simple-mindedly maligned. we're seeing it's very useful in presenting to the country an emphatically re-elected president -- >> i don't know if we want to get into the debate on this. because of the design of the electoral college is a 200-year-old manifestation of something that no longer exists and its purpose no longer exist. >> so is the constitution. >> i think i'll bottle that one for sunday. >> let's go to "nightline" anchor terry moran who has covered barack obama since the beginning. terry. >> reporter: one of the things that strikes me about this victory for barack obama is clearly sweep after this hard campaign but i think it's also much more of a liberal victory this time around than the last time. this is a president as jake notes having covered him who explicitly ran on i will raise taxes. that sunk walter mondale in 1984.

he ran on we need more regulation on the environment and financial -- he explicitly ran on supporting gay marriage and cti he won. somewhere george mcgovern is smiling in all of this. >> okay. i want to head over for a minute. top question to jonathan karl. the president has won. does nancy pelosi stay? >> well, this is the big question. she stayed last time to try to get control of the house back for democrats. my sense is that nancy pelosi is very likely to decide to retire. if people close to her said if romney had won she might have stayed for that fight but now that she did not win back the house, the president's -- president obama is back at the white house, i would be very surprised if nancy pelosi stays in the house. >> a very good chance of that. out to bill weir right now. bill? >> reporter: oh, hi, george. yeah, we're just waiting for

some movement from mitt romney. we understand that he has not yet called the president to concede. he may be still working on his speech but hasn't made a move yet to come to the convention hall. we understand paul ryan is here. we've seen members of his family but what a roller-coaster ride for his supporters, for his donors in this hall tonight. there was such a sense of defeat initially when fox news called ohio for barack obama, but then karl rove came on, started hedging, said it still was in play and people flooded the room and cheers went out handing o out american flags but as the math sunk in all that desflated and have seen children crying and a lot of hugs here tonight as they come to grips with the end of a hard-fought campaign. >> okay, bill weir, thank you very much. i want to go back to cokie roberts as jon karl was saying talking about nancy pelosi, the end of if she, indeed, does choose to retire as the

democratic leader, the end of some career. >> an incredible career. she came to congress and having been told by the congresswoman who she replaced on her deathbed she said, nancy, you run for this seat and she did and, of course, rose in the ranks in the house and put together a remarkable majority for a period there and as the first female speaker, you know, you forget that speaker of the house is a constitutional office, i mean, she is after the vice president, next in line to the president, so it is a very powerful position and one that she really felt strongly was important and important barrier to have broken for a woman when she was -- when she took the gavel the first time she had all the children come up onto the dais and be surrounded by children to talk about the future particularly for girls, so she has been a

very tough political operative and a very successful one mostly, that loss of the house in 2010 was a huge blow. >> let's keep in mind there was a lot -- held them together to pass health care since the 1940s. >> i have a projection as george predicted. can't even get my music anymore but i have a prediction -- projection here. colorado has gone to barack obama and i know, barbara, you wanted to weigh in. >> and i've been talking to a few people who might have wanted to run themselves and i'll give you their views. i just talked to newt gingrich. let me read my notes. he said there's a new house and a new senate but the same president. what do we do now? how are we going to function as a country? we are so divided and this was not a clear election. he said, we have two fundamental bodies, the house and the president, though the big question is will the president try to make his peace with the republicans or will he say, i

won again so i don't have to? and then he said, i don'ty that we can solve the problems of the country the way we have been. we need different innovations and a whole new educational policy and a whole new generation of solutions and then i said, well, do you think had you gotten the nomination that you would have won and he said, i don't know, but i would have had much more -- much different solutions. i also talked to rudy giuliani who you know around four years ago has been campaigning all over the place for mitt romney, but he didn't really want anything out of this but he could have been, what, attorney general, maybe ambassador to italy, so i'm sure he's disappointed. and somebody who probably is not is mayor bloomberg who four years ago would not take a position and remained neutral until after hurricane sandy and

then said, i'm going to go with obama because we need to focus on climate change so all of these people have been affected. some are happy and some, as you heard -- >> from the mayor. thank you, barbara. what's coming up on social media. >> we talked a lot and heard a lot about the gender gap in the weeks preceding this election and, of course, tonight we talked a lot about it. but if barack obama, president obama were to sing any song tomorrow morning it might be "all the single ladies" by beyonce because single women are the fastest growing demographic in this country. they now make up a quarter of the voting age population. the romney camp, as we know, thought that the economy would trump social issues but, of course, the obama campaign kept talking about this war against women that the romney campaign was waging, so i asked women tonight who they voted for and many of the responses seemed to indicate that reproductive rights were a big motivating factor. for example, gail from virginia, not taking a chance of roe vs.

wade being overturned voted for obama. katie, i voted for obama because he supports women's reproductive rights and will not set women back 50 years and finally leslie says i think equal pay for equal work is the most pressing issue for women this election. what do you think? i'll get back to you on that. this is referring to the 2009 lilly ledbetter fair pay act and i know, diane, you spoke to governor romney about this. he said while he didn't support it at the time, if he were elected he would not repeal it. but that lack of support, i think, did influence a number of women out there. >> yes, and then ultimately he wouldn't tell me. he would not say whether he, indeed, would have signed it if it came to his desk. i don't believe he ever said he would have signed it if it came to his desk. so, cokie, on this issue of the single ladies out there and other women -- what do you think? >> i'm certainly seeing single ladies being overwhelmingly for

president obama as they were four years ago and there's no real falloff there, but i was just looking to see if we had a number on that abortion question to see if that seems to be the indicator. the problem is people tend to say when you ask about, you know, what is the most important issue, they say the economy, of course. but so the issue then is if there's something in the ether of a candidate that makes it uncomfortable. >> 17 women currently serving in the united states senate. even with the retirement of olympia snowe and kay bailey hutchison. tammy baldwin, deb fischer in nebraska and still waiting to hear in terms of hawaii, nevada and north dakota. a record number of women will be serving in the united states senate this year. >> we got to take a quick break, we do. we'll be back.

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>> another extraordinary night in american politics, only alaska is still voting. let's go back to matthew dowd, so, matt, something you're seeing that amazed or surprised you. >> on the races unfolded to a large degree much as we expected it to and much of the polling, we still have a situation where mitt romney is leading the national popular vote by 100,000 votes. as more votes come in, we'll see that but we not only as we've talked about have a divided electorate but those who voted against the president -- we talked about this before. >> one of the other things we saw from our exit poll is 91% of president obama's supporters thought he would win. 71% of governor romney's supporters thought he would win and that is -- speaks to the

whole idea that people are living in their own cocoons getting information from probably a partisan source that reinforces what they feel already makes it much harder to bridge these divides. >> that's what -- what this country has become, even though it's more diverse and more heterogeneous it's become less tolerant of other people's opinions. people are associating amongst more people that are like them politically and culturally and i'm getting information much more in tune with where they are, they create their own reality so what we now have in america is two americas that basically tonight before tonight was over both thought they were going to win. >> yes, but i want to just point out one thing, 55% of the overall voters thought president obama was going to win. we've seen that's one of the best prognosticators of who actually

good morning folks here some breaking news for you as you've learned y president obama has declared the winner. we want to show you the latest .umbers we have right now statistically the numbers here show a tie at 49% with barack obama at 48 ,758,226 and romney slightly ahead of him but that's with still precincts waiting to be now the nd right 290 votes for 200 for mitt nd romney. which has all the major news for the race to the president to be reelected. let's get reaction here locally. tom rousey is live near the

white house now. it has been absolute bed lam down here since the annoupsment since obama was the rojected winner. see some folks coming but we've got hundreds thousands of people making white house. he grew very quickly. we were there shortly after the that the president projected winner. video taken in the thick everything as the news president obama was winner the crowd went there. ly nuts down out with 50 tarted people and then in a matter of 15, 20 minutes it grew to about people and it has been growing ever since. we've seen thousands stream sections of town celebrate near the white house tonight. lot of these folks are college students. workers.e campaign we've seen them coming out of bars, apartments and it appears a lot of students all

down here tonight of d.c. is heavily lot ratic territory so a folks around here were very happy with the results. years ago there was a big crowd. photographer ur who was here last time crowd is a lot bigger than that came out that night. becoming a d.c. tradition to come down to the white house night.tion people still streaming down and we've got thousands of folks this point at the white house very, very festive mood down here. >> good deal. festive is one way to put it. let's go someplace things are quite festive right now in chicago. scott, at the obama chicago.ers there in scott, what's the word there? well, they're still

celebrating here in chicago. course they would love to the president. that hasn't happened yet haven't heard from mitt romney and there is that those ohio numbers but that's not dissuading the crowd here at all. told the colorado declaration and the president despite not having taken the podium did send out an e-mail to supporters. kind of sums up what's appening here. that this o know wasn't fate this wasn't an accident you made this happen you organized yourself block by block took ownership of the wasn't and when it pressed forward. are the people we need. it is that grassroots effort that we continue to hear get out the vote effort that they people o heavily on for. to the campaign supposedly making 20,000

just to two states iowa saw a lot of we first-hand. they believe that they built such a foundation not just for this campaign but built it upon that was already that they in 2008 machine, a machine that working very strong for years and that gave them a tinchingt advantage. we now are just awaiting how will resolve itself g a concession speech if that is to take place shortly or not and then when if we have the president make the in chicago. thank you. posted out there. w let's get some more reaction here locally. >> sam is out in the district at 14 and v northwest. let's check and see. well for much of the night a party here

g up and down the street. in this lot of bars area so people were in the bars parties tion watch and once they got the results then they started eering and several bars here this neighborhood and people out on the street, a dancing in the street. and we're a bit removed but a from us down here at 14th literally they have traffic. partying and dancing streets. scene we had me s ago when barack obama won the first time and of course it's being epeat here in this neighborhood of northwest washington. e bars had -- in fact had been celebrating, a bar out -- he said he's having an open bar if barack obama won and if romney won he was going last call. i guess they must be having t that bar.

>> all right. we'll continue to also watch the romney camp. we're going to take a quick right back.'ll be

>> we also have some local gotten a lot of attention and issues under way that have particular three key ballot referendums. a look at what's g on here in these questions. gambling bout the expansion. 94% reporting, 52% are for gambling expansion and 4% against. we also have another big 6, regards allowing same sex marriage in maryland you can see here with it looks like the votes for are at 52% and the at 48.gainst are margin has pretty much last few d over the orsef hours. then a third question in that's question 4, tuition the dream right now we have 92% 58% are for the 42% against.

all right. at national harbor, seeing saying about these particular issues. >> well, with most of the reporting in the pro-gambling side up by about 65,000 votes the victory has been declared here at national harbor. that we shot eo a short time ago, a major erupted the popping of champagne and the releasing of spectacular firkse show. fireworks show. if this officially passes is a process ahead bidding process but the bottom line most insiders mgm will win the according to their c.e.o. a major massive resort casino campus that will in the neighborhood of

$800 million here on the banks the potomac sometime by 2016 early 2017 creating thousands of jobs generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state of maryland while expanding -- and deal for other casinos in the area. expanding vegas style throughout the state. the really big thing, the message at the end of the day from the leaders is that this be an otentially boon for prince the national and harbor and create really an international resort destination. mgm and he goal of harbor. mind, there is another down the road, they bid on this and ironically national is the that spent 40 plus dollars against this

gambling rerned dumb. whole reason is that they own a in west no out believed nd it is y -- marylanders $200 million at that west virginia casino. don't urse the folks all of that revenue. that's the story from here. elected officials, the public, this place was packed just a ago. time thrilled.solutely there is a process that is going to go into play. there's a bidding process. licensing process, a zoning process so we're not quite this is the first major hurdle and folks out here who supportd this initiative thrilled. >> thank you very much. that. eciate >> we turn now to the dean. >> i heard a minister say the other day that a second term kind of be like renewing your marriage vows.

still in like but a lot of the gone. ent is quite there. after a few years the romance f fades. >> that's one way of looking at it. looks like barack obama will chance.cond the question is others have an piffni and suddenly come solve the the problems in automatic budget after the first year and then get on with the rest of what it takes to govern our country? did you see the interview with mcconnell? the only thing they had in the dark suits and ties. they never even looked at each other. enough. favorite day every years. d louden county today was a -year-old first time to vote as an american citizen. native of peru she was so

be participating in democratic exercise. now, the political face of changing. that's what this election is about. years there are fewer fewer people who look like at the polling place and who look like lusha. wrote every four years 2% less white and 2% more mine nourt. today in d.c. maryland and in all voters came shapes size and colors. they brought their dogs, they cars, on bicycles on motor cycles, some walked, maw with no hands literally voted with her feet. i saw people wearing romney buttons and i saw a young a t-shirt earing that said red necks for obama. country. america. it.ve traveled around so

uch. preparation you were all through virginia and i think such a microcosm of everything you just said. >> it really is. and it's very i want resting. you can go down route 15 down the middle of virginia to louden county ve going to go tly is president obama again this time and to the west is going mitt romney and then you have prince william county which is going for president gives you a d it good idea of how this going to go but it of reflect the way the rest of the country is when you get down to southwest. been all around the h and here we're at now they're going to be representatives in the senate by two democratic senators now. virginians are we looking at? allen was a very popular

governor and he was a popular yor -- tim kaine. >> it's getting late. anyway tim kaine was a very popular mayor, very popular governor. very popular a governor. when you see them on the pretty trail they're they do and they how to nd the state and to people and i guess for voters that was yesterday's news. looking at live pictures from obama headquarters as we await speeches. mentioned all the different type of voters and the person maw reinsaw and it's these ting because line for waited in .ours and hours and in some cases turnout was really surprising. speaking of this the economy biggest concern. x in ten said it

was the most porpt. six in ten of those voters backed romney. but two in ten voters said having a president who cares them most e like important quality for a president. o one margin voters favored keeping abortion legal most of all cases virginia voters divided on the nation's law.ealth care half said it to repeal half said it should be expanded. to the national ago you moment mentioned about whether these going to come here now that the campaigns are all over and the back to the oing is e house and john boehner his seat and for now. si of how your sense different things are going to at all if we're talking back to what is the status quo? >> if nothing changes nothing changes. back to tim kaine. from a strong support younger voters and minorities

and people who consider moderates. allen the choice of voters, independents. you go. just called virginia for obama. >> how about that. i wonder how that will help popular vote? the elect ral college vote that's where be but the to be lar vote is going to in the ry important days to come. all right. thank you so much as always. it. preciate he's the best wefment love him. ahead and get more out there. is out in front of the white house. going on right now paparazzi that's taking your picture? and what is going on out here right now is that we still have a little bit of bed lam here. it's finally maybe starting to lail bit but we've

crowd here that is still white ng down to the house. of the folks me decided to come out here. since the er announcement that the president won we've seen people streaming to the white house, these folks honking their horns. nonstop.en i can y thing that compare this to is almost like a local team wins a pro sports championship, which we haven't experienced in a long time. that's the only thing ink i can compare the scene. heavy democratic city so these folks are happy in the e result tonight been on and they've down by what i believe tens of thousands to the white house to screllbrate here. all right. thank you, tom. you can see we're seeing that play out in other locations as we've been keeping happening in 's obama at the

headquarters. that in get back to just a bit. >> so now we're going to head back to abc news coverage of tonight and we are still waiting for speeching from bothmen. we'll see you later.en mitt and ann romney. she's been there for him. in all the testimonials, how he's been her rock and i'll watch her closely because in these waning days of the campaign it's been ann romney who started to become a little emotional about the support she was seeing in these final days for people who were really hoping they were going to pull this off, george and diane. >> you talk about the energy he reflected, that governor romney reflected, he was bounding through those final events drawing huge crowds. but i wonder, you know, you were with him every single day along the way. did he really know what was happening? did he really, really deeply believe he was going to win or did he just feel this was the important thing, the right way for him to go out? >> reporter: i think, george, he thought he had a real shot at it. i do believe he sinced momentum.

this has been such a roller-coaster ride, this campaign, you know, late summer early fall there was that videotape where he made a comment about the 47% and that probably was the lowest point as a correspondent covering the campaign and looking at the advisers and taking the temperature of the room, they knew they had a problem on their hands with that tape and then shortly thereafter was that first debate, they had even prepped going into that debate with help from senator rob portman to take a question or to take incoming fire from president obama about the 47% and it never even came up in the first debate, as you'll remember. there was a lot of criticism about whether or not the president came to play at that debate. where was he and it gave mitt romney an opportunity to sort of present himself in a much different light from the ads that had been seen in many of these battleground states and after that the campaign really sensed momentum. there was flag football on a beach in florida where the press had been invited. it was a surprise moment where the governor came out and you

could see in their faces after the first debate there was real momentum and i think there will be a lot of talk looking back in these final days about hurricane sandy and that moment where president obama was given an opportunity to go to new jersey, to look presidential and, of course, stand beside chris christie. there will be a lot of talk about that whether or not that halted the momentum once and for all, any momentum he had. but it's been up and down and a roller-coaster ride and i believe in the end the governor and ann romney thought they had momentum and were hoping they would be able to pull it off. >> we are getting ready to hear from governor romney any minute now so let's take a break. we'll be right back with that. last thanksgiving, about 2 million people tried to deep-fat-fry their turkey.

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>> announcer: live from times square in new york city, election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and you see that crowd there in times square right there. president obama has been re-elected but, diane, the margin got bigger for president obama. we can project he won the state of virginia and his 13 electoral votes. 5-49 for president obama.

donna brazile, this is a sweet one for the president and it seems a triumph of organizations and one more symbol of a truly changing america. >> no question about it. when i heard the campaign was going to spend a great deal of its time expanding the ground game from 2008, i kept saying to myself, why? and they said, no, we're going to increase the number of organizers, put more field officers in and over the last two weeks they opened up 5,100 more satellite campaign headquarters. clearly it paid off tonight. >> i want to turn to nicolle, if i can. you've been there for losing candidates so many times and i know -- [ laughter ] >> not so many times. i retract. i retract. >> one party that looked like jake's. one party that looked like david's. >> let me go back to john mccain, if i can. because we know one candidate 30

years later was asked how long does it take to get over losing, he said i'll let you know. >> john mccain -- on a serious note john mccain viewed his concession speech the night that he conceded to barack obama, i think, as one of the most important speeches certainly of that candidacy. >> it was a beautiful speech. >> and there may not be much that mitt romney wanted to emulate when it came to the campaign that john mccain and sarah palin ran but if there's a moment he should strive to do half as well as john mccain it's when he conceded the election to barack obama. >> vice president gore in 2000 got accolades for the way he conceded in 2000. george will, picking up on what's happening in virginia. one of the things we saw in virginia but across many states, ohio, virginia, and wisconsin, republican governors in states that were doing pretty well better on unemployment than the rest of the country but barack obama wins them. >> the states are doing well on the republican governors were bashful about saying they were

doing well because they were doing well because they had republican governors and that was their theory but couldn't promote themselves without mixing up the message of the romney campaign and that's just tough. >> we're still waiting to see what happens in florida, the same results that happened in florida across the board, states doing better and makes perfect sense. the states where unemployment was going down, president obama did well. >> we said -- >> virginia, i mean, talk about encapsulating the republican problem. barack obama wins only 38% of white voters and wins the state. there are so many places that have been brought into play by changing topography and now well for -- >> want to go back to jake tapper. we have heard that president obama has received a phone call from mitt romney? >> reporter: that's right, george. abc news can report that mitt romney has called president obama and conceded defeat. the two men congratulated each

other, the president congratulated mitt romney on a battle well fought, but, yes, mitt romney has officially conceded and we expect to hear from him in the next few minutes, george. back to you in new york. >> he has already driven up to the headquarters where he is going to speak tonight, david muir, the crowd reready? >> reporter: the crowd is ready. they are chanting mitt, mitt and we can see the senior staff gathered in the wings here and in the last 24 to 48 hours in the final sprint we were really traveling with all the senior staff on the plane, eric, sue, some of the names deep into the political world, beth myers helped do a search for paul ryan, the vp search cha chose paul ryan. he arrived sometime before the governor arrived. the hotel they were staying at is attached to the convention center. i expect he was working on the concession speech. one thing he did say earlier when talking about how he hadn't

thought about the other speech, only wrote a victory speech he didn't share it with his top advisers, with ann. something he was going to do anyway and i suspect they were putting on the finishing touches and calling the president. >> what i keep thinking about is seven years, basically, he's been on this quest and as we remember when he went up to the debates every night, he would write on the podium, first word, dad. >> his father, of course, ran for president, was governor of michigan, ran for president back in 1968 was forced out of the race after making an unfortunate comment about being brainwashed by the generals in vietnam. it's been a long journey, matthew dowd, for mitt romney. but i wonder after the seven years has he left any stamp on the republican party? >> none, no stamp on the republican party and i think the republican party, this loss wasn't really about mitt romney really fundamentally, this loss again was about the republican party and mitt romney ran a race

that was not great but good enough. he raised a lot ofman and campaigned like the dickens through the whole course of this thing but when it's all said and done because of the changing nature of the country in the republican party comes up with an excuse it was mitt romney's excuse and don't look at themselves and say what are we going to do to adapt to the 21st century of america they are going to be a minority party. >> recrimination is a part of american politics and will begin in earnest tomorrow amongst the republicans. there is in the republican party a divide and that there are libertarian republicans associated with free markets and all the rest, minimal government and then the social conservatives and that's the first of many civil wars will be over that. >> and the issue of spending, as well and the issue of -- mitt romney is backstage right now. we're likely to hear from him momentarily and will speak in a few minutes.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome governor mitt romney. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you, my friends. thank you so very much. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. thank you. i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory, his supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. i wish all of them well but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters.

this was a time of great challenges for america and i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. [ applause ] >> i want to thank paul ryan for all that he has done for our campaign. [ cheers and applause ] and for our country. besides my wife, ann, paul is the best choice i've ever made. [ applause ] and i trust that his intellect and his hard work and his commitment to principle will continue to contribute to the good of our nation. [ applause ] i also want to thank ann, the love of my life. [ cheers and applause ] she would have been a wonderful first lady. she's --

[ cheers and applause ] >> she has been that and more to me and to our family and to the many people that she has touched with her compassion and her care. i thank my sons for their tireless work on behalf of the campaign and thank their wives and children for taking up the slack as their husbands and dads have spent so many weeks away from home. [ applause ] i want to thank matt rhodes and the dedicated campaign he led. [ cheers and applause ] they have made an extraordinary effort not just for me but also for the country that we love. and to you here tonight and to the team across the country, the volunteers, the fund-raisers, the donors, the surrogates, i don't believe that there's ever been an effort in our party that can compare with what you have done over these past years. thank you so very much. [ cheers and applause ]

thanks for all the hours of work, for the call, for the speeches and appearances for the resources and for the prayers, you gave deeply from yourselves and performed magnificently and you inspired us and you humbled us. you've been the very best we could have imagined. the nation, as you know, is at a critical point. at a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens also have to rise to the occasion. we look to our teachers, professors we count on you not just to teach but to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery and look to our pastors and priests and rabbis and counselors of all kinds to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built, honesty, charity, integrity and family. we look to our parents for the final analysis everything

depends on the success of our homes. we look to job creator of all kinds, we're counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward and we look to democrats and republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics. i believe in america. i believe in the people of america. [ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ] >> and i ran for office because i'm concerned about america. this election is over, but our principles endure. i believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy and to a

new greatness. like so many of you, paul and i have left everything on the field. we have given our all to this campaign. [ cheers and applause ] field, we have given our all to this campaign. [ cheers and applause ] i so wish -- i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader. so ann and i join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation. thank you and god bless america! you guys are the best! thank you so much! [ cheers and applause ] thank you! thanks, guys! >> governor romney, his wife, son tagg, paul ryan coming up on

stage. >> a gracious subdued speech. >> he said he believes in america and offers his prayers to president obama. time for the entire country to do what they could to put aside partisan bickering and political posturing. as barbara pointed out earlier, the last speech of his political career, no doubt for mitt romney. >> the man on stage with him, paul ryan the he will be going back to the house. he got re-elected to the house tonight. i want to go to john karl, governor romney hug his sons and grandchildren. paul ryan does have a feature, he has been re-elected. people looking to him as leader of the party. >> paul ryan has a future. this will not be blamed on him. big thing with paul ryan, was it a risk because of the ryan budget? and the changes proposed to medicare. it turned out if you looked at

florida, romney won seniors in florida, mediscare tactics didn't work. paul ryan emerges as a bigger leader in defeat than before mitt romney chose him. an interesting footnote on this, george, in paul ryan's own district, of course, he was re-elected easily. a significant number of people in his district voted for barack obama as president as the they were voting to sending paul ryan to the house i you look at rock county, wisconsin, the home of janesville, paul ryan's hometown. generations of ryian ryans. barack obama won janesville, with 60% of the vote. >> the auto plant that closed. >> have to say, george, i think it was kind of mercy not to see mrs. romney standing there for long. she came out, and she, so used to seeing the suffering of the wives, who have been on these

long quests too, and she got to come out. >> gave him a hug and walk off the stage. >> and walk off the stage. >> you were there for sarah palin, from all the accounts, she was pushing hard to give a speech. >> paul ryan trying to give a speech tonight. and no. we actually have now an heir apparent. the republican party has at least one leader. and the republican primary really does begin in earnest today. you know after midnight. and we're off to the races. you will start hearing a lot of people championing their particular horses for the next race. which sadly for everyone who is tired of politics, it starts today. >> george, you mentioned, senator marco rubio of florida. >> marco rubio, governor martinez, new mexico, hispanic leaders will be consulted.

asian-american community is rapidly growing, prosperous one the republican party will compete for. the party is going to do some soulsearching. but the election results tonight are really clear and structured as what they need to search their souls about. >> matt dowd, write the president's speech for us. what does he have to do to overcome this divided nation when everyone wakes up tomorrow morning? >> first thing he has to do, admit this is not a huge victory. admit he has got to do a job and admit to the reality of a divide in the country and maybe even admit that what he ran on in 2008 he wasn't able to accomplish bringing the country together and facing the problem right away. i think he has to go to congress within the next few days and say we have got to solve the problems. i am welling illing to sit down.

he has to do that up front and center in the speech. >> he certainly will do that by the end of the week. we expect him to hit the notes. what if heave do doesn't find a partner? >> you can force somebody if you keep doing it. one of the things, president obama, did it well, did photo-ops, never did it consistently. fault president obama for that. never did it consistently. republicans didn't get along. yes they fought him. never pushed them on it. i think he has an opportunity -- a window -- having won, not huge. saying i am willing to give. i want to be leader of the country. not leader of my party. and meet them. >> he has, signalled in the final days, leading to election day that he did want to address three big issues, the budget, all the big budget and debt problems, number two, imgrigs e immigrati immigration, and three, climate change. >> the budget will test the republicans. there is a deal to be had. everybody knows what it looks

like, will house republicans bring it forward. on immigration, 65% in our poll said allow a movement, including, half of mitt romney voters. will republicans move after tonight when the hispanic vote is critical in defeat. >> quickly before the president comes out. a picture the white house released. president obama, vice president joe biden embracing after they were declared winners and there you have dr. jill biden and michelle obama as well. >> watch it on tv in the suite. go back to the hall in chicago right now. the crowd is getting very revved up. video of president obama on the screen. jake tapper, what else are you seeing? >> right now we have to say, they're clearly getting ready for the president to come out. remarks were put out the they are running as they have been for several hours now, these videos that have been a very popular part of the obama campaign. with supporters.

they have been, running them. this of course is the famous fired up, ready to go speech, which president obama likes to tell at the end of his campaigns. he did it in 2008. he did, guess, last night in des moines, possible that was last night. last night in des moines he told the story about a little old lady at a campaign stop during desperate time for his campaign. and you hear president obama chanting, fired up, ready to go. the crowd very excited. a smaller cr eer crowd than we d to. >> president obama expected to come out. >> now, look at this. >> george, they're raising the curtains of course, a whole bunch of people there, in the stand behind me. president obama will come out any minute. [ cheers and applause ] >> he will be surrounded by supporters when he comes out to take the podium. what do you think the president

should say? >> first of all i think the president is going to talk to the country. he is going to talk about coming together to advance the common good. we have work to do. let's roll up our sleeves. i am ready to work. with the republicans. i am willing to help bring the country together. i think a very conciliatory message. i also think it is an evening to celebrate. the president some things he is proud of, things he did in the first term that i think most americans who voted for him would like him to emphasize again tonight. >>ten about his team also there on that stage as they engineered this amazing term. >> two victories for president obama. have to say. go back to jake tapper on this. we heard about the ups and downs. this time from inside the white house, steady throughout, never

seen to doubt victory, small victory. and never seemed to doubt it was possible. from what you can tell inside the inner circles did that change after the first debate? >> they were worried after the first debate. we saw there was an effect. not just -- on -- on independent voters in many polls. but on democrats, a demoralization. donors were concerned, activists were concerned. we heard on the campaign trail, bruce springsteen was concerned. he talked about how he was a little freaked out. robert gibbs, talking to him earlier, the president's former aide and former press secretary. he was called in to talk to president obama and do the gibbs' thing, which is to kind of pick and push him up. getting the president's head back in the game.

gibbs said he didn't need to do it. president obama realized what happened after the first debate. he got himself back where he needed to be. so there was -- serious concerns, and anxiety, the campaign was so expertly run and expertly designed. it was able to with stand a mistake by the candidate himself. the campaign was -- was just, i mean it has to go down, as one of the most perfect campaigns in political history. if you think about the fact. >> actually the campaign manager. and donna, talked about this, the architect of this field organization, this internet digital organization, that found brand new ways. revolutionary new ways to can tact people and get them to vote. >> incredible operation, george. it's look they understood what -- what, what tv shows you watched, what magazines you subscribe to, they reach you on your text phone, reach you at

the shopping center. people were inundated with texts all the time. incredible operation. i think it is going to take years for the republicans to catch up with the technology the democrats have put together to reach their voters and find new voters. >> i don't think their problem is technology. i think it will take them a team to get a grasp upon really what the state of the country looks like. what it looks like. how far their policy and their leaders are divorced from what the country is and what the state of the country is. >> george, when you talk about president obama. we wait to hear his speech. he made history four years ago. clearly makes history again by getting re-elected. of course, this is only going to be the very beginning of his second term. can he earn a place among the very top tier? >> i think he wants to. i think he wants to be on the mount rushmore of liberalism.

and he has made a good start on that. with the extraordinary health care legislation which -- essentially, nationalizes 1% of the economy. an enormous achievement. >> it will not be repealed. >> very difficult to unwind this after it begins to kick in in 2014. in that regard he has already done that. the question is what else does he want? assumption seems to be he wants to play nicely with republicans if i don't think he came to washington to shrink the government, cut entitlements or change the trajectory that franklin roosevelt or lyndon johnson put the country on. >> barbara? >> as we get to the end of the evening. talk about mrs. obama and what happens to her in the next four years. she has done a wonderful job of bringing up the two girls allowing them to have a private life.

malia is 14. sasha, 11. in four years, malia will be going off to college. they're going to have to face her dating, which is going to be very difficult i think for the president. she is going to get a driver's license. and mrs. obama has got to decide what her project are going to be for the next four years. it has to go beyond, moving on and obesity. spent a great deal of time with veterans and their families. and afghanistan now, becoming, more, and more in the past. she has to fiend new project, nw determination and new life for herself. she said very clearly she does not want a political career in four years. she doesn't have the patience. she has a great opportunity to do some wonderful things. >> the president, by the way, i interviewed him after the first debate. he said two things. he said that malia will learn to drive. he has promised her. and i am not sure he was

entirely happy with all of my questions about that first debate, i have to say he had an unbelievable confidence. he always says, i don't get that high, i don't get that low. and in that moment, you could see it. you could see it. he was not going to go with all of the people who thought that he had just handed the election to governor romney. >> a very steady team all the way. they reflected their boss in that respect. they did not get shaken. >> the first debate, really kind of crystallized the question you are asking here today. the issue out of the debate wondering what is barack obama burning to do in a second term? he was passionate about blocking the ryan budget converting medicare into a voucher, and medicaid, defending health care. what is it that he want to achieve in a second term? he laid out. budget deal. immigration. we'll see what the passion is that is more than defensive, defending what he did in the first term.

>> let's be clear. those were not the issues he ran on. if you look at what they did. they won every state they went after with the exception of the state of north carolina. they did that with a barrage of negative attack ad against mitt romney. this was a relentlessly negative campaign. set out to destroy the republican nominee and make him not to be -- a, a, satisfactory alternative. it worked. >> determined to make it a choice, and defy the change, mitt romney would bring. we'll take a quick break. when we come back, president obama. >> announcer: election night, 2012, "your voice, your vote." brought to you by red lobster. clearest water. c, we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster that we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobster's crabfest! the only time of year you can savor 5 succulent crab entrees, all under 20 dollars. like a half-pound of tender snow crab paired with savory grilled shrimp, just 12.99. or our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake.

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>> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. once again, diane sawyer, and george stephanopoulos. good evening, once again from the city that never sleeps. and it is proving it tonight. as they stand out in the cold in times square. in front of our election headquarters. we are hearing, we are minutes away from the president. >> let's take a look at where we stand. president obama has been re-elected. 303 electoral votes. pulled ahead in the popular vote as well ahead of mitt romney. still tied 49-49. the big state, we are waiting for, the state of florida, too close to call right now.

see what we have here. pull up the map. 50 for president obama. 49 for governor romney. leading with 92% of the vote. as we wait for the president, matthew dowd, a decisive, decisive victory for the president. though the popular vote is close. >> a close, close win but convincing win. convincing electoral college win. i think that the way the map unfolded tonight. is exactly what they had conveyed to many people how they thought it would. their theory of the race. turnout. how the dynamics worked. it unfolded in almost exactly the way they thought. >> nicole wallace reading an e-mail from covering the romney campaign talking senior staffersen tears astaffers in tears and shaking, unable to stop. they were convinced they had a shot in the final days.

>> the beginning of september when stories begin to break about disarray in their campaign. i talked to senior leaders of the campaign. i said things look pretty bad, don't they? they said i still think we are probably going to win. they never lost, i think, that belief system. let me say there is a whole lot of red on that map. a whole lot of people in this country did vote for mitt romney. barack obama would be foolish to ignore almost half of the country that thought mitt romney would make a superb president, a better president than him. elections are always a choice between two men. neither one of these men really led a discussion about the future. no one tomorrow morning has any idea what barack obama has in store for us. because there was never a debate. neither man really tried to win the future. >> and nicole, barack obama didn't compete in indiana, missouri, home state of louisiana. they competed in the so-called battleground states. that's where the message was. >> texas and louisiana too.

>> george bush took office when he -- >> get over it! jeez, louise, you won tonight. >> he won. it was a very -- >> seriously. president obama over 300 electoral vote. it's not a big thing. >> tip is a divided country. all most half the country voted for mitt romney. >> we were divided ten years ago, and ten years from now. the country is settled into this path. we need a leader who can bring us together. i think that leader is barack obama. >> donna, it is a huge victory. no question. look at the electoral count. what did the president campaign on in the battleground states? >> nothing. >> this was a negative campaign. >> like seinfeld. campaign about nothing. >> it was a huge victory. on the other hand, the last time a president was re-elected with the smaller share in a popular

vote than in the first election, andrew jackson. 1838. when he won, in 2008, he had groups growing behind him, the minority population. upscale whites, young people. all basically stuck with him. he lost more ground among the rest of the white population. so you are in a situation where democrats clearly have a demographic upper hand. >> i do want to go back to, you bring that up, on one hand, part of the reason that president obama won by so much in '08, elected on the heels of a massive economic crisis. part of the reason his numbers were held down, this time around is there is still so much economic discontent out there. that shows up in the polling, gary. >> that's right. barack obama had one big thing working against him in the election. three things working for im. working against him, the economy. this is not the kind of economy in which he gets re-elected.

face it. how did he turn it around? the fact it is improving however slowly. two, the fact that mitt romney couldn't close the deal on the, on the notion he could do better. third, the fact that barack obama followed george w. bush, who got the blame for the economy. those three things enabled him to skirt past that, iron gate of economic discontent threatening his second term. >> did he secure some kind of cultural change? did he secure it for all times? >> no, i don't think so. i think the country is in a cultural change. as we have talked about all night. an important thing to talk about. but he still has the to convince people that he has got a program that he is going forward with. we have to see what it is. one thing i do think we should mention though is health care. of course that was his signature achievement or -- if you think can think of it as negative achievement. if that is your viewpoint. in his first term.

and 59% of the people coming out of the polls said that they, we should repeal, either some or all of it. that's not going to happen. it is not going to be repealed. it will go into effect. then people might decide they like it. >> what kind of a mandate, the president is elected to move forward now. he'll bring that to matthew dowd. venture one possibility is a mandate for his basic approach to the budget. one that include raising taxes on the wealthy and spending cuts. >> i don't think he has a mandate of any kind. i think he has a mandate to stay in the white house. that's what he got. he gets to keep his furniture there four more years. i think he has to be the president he promised us he would be four years ago. and he promised us he would be the president that united the country, that brought us together. divisive presidency end of

bush's presidency. many voted for barack obama to unite the country get past the divide. maybe he should go back and resay the speech he gave four years ago when he won. this time i am going to do it. >> his inaugural address where he promised end to childish things. went into the battle. stimulus, marched out we won, i won. my way or the highway. the way he campaigned was a lot better than the way he governed. >> there are two side of that. 60% voted in the exit poll, said raise taxes on people over $250,000 as part of the budget deal. republicans in the end, knowing barack obama re-elected willing to do that as we saw in '97 when the country sent back a democratic president, republican congress. they made a deal. will 2013 be 1997 or republicans cannot accept a deal that include what 60% of the voters said they were willing to do. >> mitch mcconnell, the minority leader in the senate, his number

one objective was to make president obama a one-term president. now that president obama has been re-elected. maybe he can get over that start working with the president so we can get things done in the senate. >> we are not able to project -- the next senator from the state of wisconsin. another hold for the democrats, john karl, and first openly gay senator. >> first openly gay united states senator. another seat republicans hoped they could win. tommy thompson. running against her. tammy baldwin was there. again, immediately take her place on the far left of the u.s. senate. >> this means we will have 19 women in the united states senate. a new high. 19%. because -- she becomes the 18th. in hawaii, two women running against each other. one of them, also -- of the,

additional one. >> the senate story tonight is extraordinary. >> entirely possible -- win in north dakota. right now running ahead. >> from where we started. democrats, 23 seats. republicans only 10. democrats to be in this position. again, we will see the senate divided almost exactly in half. the country divided almost in half. and can either side. does somebody give and agree to build a working majority for change in a country. >> worth pointing out. polls have closed in all 50 states. president obama won 25 states and d.c. governor romney won 23 states. two states not projected. florida and alaska. >> what are the numbers on the senate, john karl? >> right now the democrats have net gain of two of seats. two seats the republicans really hoped they're going to win. look where they stand now. don't know if you can see the

board. waiting for north dakota. solidly republican state. democratic seat they're hoping to pick up. right now, the democrat has a narrow lead over her opponent, the republican. and the other big state we are waiting for is montana. tester has got a big lead. it is possible that democrats could emerge with a net gad in two senate seats. >> everybody said this would unfold. vulnerable president of the united states. republicans thought they would beat him. he wins a convincingly victory tonight. in the senate, thought that they would take it back. done ape year ago. now may end up losing the seat to the house. if you lack at this crow-- if y look at this crowd. the first foray into double

digits ever. and the president won them 71, at this point to 27. >> wow. >> 71. >> 71. yes. that surpasses the 67%. four years ago. >> incredible indictment to reach out. and in many ways should be favorable. >> one of the things we saw, though nicole wallace. when he want to univision with our colleague, and pressed quite hard on immigration, faced that real anger in the hispanic community over failing to follow through on immigration reform. yet he still gets the kind of numbers. >> that's right. that's because the it is a choice. and the republican party it is worse. again, and unbelievable in that. think everyone who saw that. the univision anchor. pressed obama the way he hadn't been pressed on immigration.

he has not led. i worked for the last american president who used the pow of the oval office to get things done with democrats and immigration reform. ronald reagan said, hispanics are republicans they just don't know it. to look how the republican party, almost collapsed. our next nominee can't be some one that supports self-deportation. >> you think? >> yeah. >> embrace sb-1070. they had marco rubio and joe arpaio, and it's not just immigration. voter id laws. hispanic, particularly in texas. found very, very offensive. and that was as well.

>> the country changed. this may be the last election we see two white men run against each other. so different than it was. the vast majority of the votes. hispanic the fastest rising population. two white men, maybe the last presidential race, two white men run against each other for president of the united states. >> biracial. >> we're all thinking -- >> he is so smart. >> go to jake tapper in chicago. >> i just want to make sure that everybody is clear on the fact that barack obama is not white. has that been established? i feel like you needed to come to me. i have this breaking news flash,

barack obama is african-american. if somebody could tell matt, that would be great. with the numbers it is stark. 71% latinos, voting for president obama. you had mitt romney without question, the most conservative republican on these immigration issues than i can remember. george w. bush, john mccain, ronald reagan signed into law 1987, amnesty it is referred to. mitt romney was very conservative on this issue. and my god, the obama campaign loved it. and during the only time that i saw any nervousness among obama senior staffers was when it looked like rick perry, before his campaign completely self-emulated, it looked like, rick perry governor of texas might be the nominee. they were going to have to reshuffle all their maps. not able to do all the get out the vote. and -- rely upon, latino votes

in colorado, nevada, florida. they were worried about that. of course it didn't work out. for enough gore perry for gover. and when they heard mitt romney, staking out the position on the far right for immigration. that made the obama campaign happy. they felt they would improve on 2008 numbers. absolutely they did. george. >> jake, hear the music wrapping up behind you. sure looks like the president is getting close. probably 15 second. based on what you are saying. are you confident the president sees, immigration reform for health care for the second term. >> immigration reform if he can get republicans, especially republicans who worked on the bill during the bush administration if he can get republicans on board, i think he sees immigration reform. and tax reform as issues where he is willing to work with

republicans. he does not see republicans as having been willing to work with him. and he is hoping as he puts it that the fever will break. that victory will mean the fever will break. republicans realizing they no longer, they can't defeat him. this is it. he has four years. that's it. can't defeat him again. maybe work with him on the issues. that is his perspective on his agenda. yes, immigration and tax reform. >> it will be fascinating to hear the president's speech after this long wait. i believe he did have two speeches. he is retooling it. and retooling it for this event tonight. the once and future president getting ready for his next four years. here he is. >> the president of the united states and the first family. [ cheers and applause ]

♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ ♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ ♪ oh yeah

[ cheers and applause ] ♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ ♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ [ cheers and applause ]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you so much. tonight more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting

our union moves forward. it moves forward because of you. it moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and oppression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an american family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one group. [ cheers and applause ] tonight in this election, you, the american people, reminded us that while our road has been

hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the united states of america the best is yet to come. [ cheers and applause ] i want to thank every american who participated in this election. whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time -- by the way, we have to fix that. [ cheers and applause ] whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone, whether